Third International Policy Conference on the African Child Combating child poverty and social exclus

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Third International Policy Conference on the
African Child Combating child poverty and
social exclusion in EU countries lessons for
policy and practice

• Hugh Frazer
• Adjunct Professor, NUI Maynooth
• Coordinator, EU Network of independent experts on
  social inclusion

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Introduction

• Thank you for the invitation to participate in
  conference
• Exchange of learning and good practice between
  Member States has been at heart of the European
  Unions approach to tackling child poverty in
  recent years
• Every country is different thus only you can
  decide which elements of the EU experience is
  relevant to your situation here in Africa
• Content of presentation
• The nature extent of child poverty in EU
• Preconditions for effective action on child
  poverty
• A comprehensive policy framework
• Ensuring effective delivery
• Summary and conclusions

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A Growing Priority for the EU

• Since 2001 child poverty has become a growing
  priority within the EU
• EUs Social Inclusion and Protection Process
  2001-2010
• aim to make a decisive impact on the
  eradication of poverty by 2010
• EC Communication on Rights of Child (July 2006)
• recognition of childrens rights and social
  inclusion in EUs objectives in 2007 Lisbon
  Treaty
• Why?
• Scale and persistence of problem
• Threat to fundamental rights
• Ageing population
• Negative impact on economic and social
  development
• Negative impact on political and social solidarity

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Extent and nature A complex and multi-faceted
issue

• Child poverty is a structural problem linked to
• Inadequate access to income
• lack of decent work and inadequate income
  supports
• Poor access to essential services
• housing/environment, health care, child care,
  social services
• Limited developmental and participation
  opportunities
• education and sport/recreational/cultural
  activities
• And can be compounded by
• Discrimination and segregation
• immigrant some ethnic minorities (especially
  Roma), asylum seekers
• children with disabilities
• Gender inequality
• Violence exploitation
• Domestic violence, homelessness, trafficking
  sexual exploitation, child labour
• Institutionalisation
• Crime and drug/alcohol abuse
• Indebtedness
• Isolation (both rural isolation, urban
  ghettoisation)

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Extent and nature Some key findings

• Children are at greater risk of relative income
  poverty than adults (19 compared to 16)
• Shared problem but great variety in extent and
  intensity across EU Member States (9-29)
• MS where extent is greatest are also often where
  problem is most severe

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Main Groups at Risk

• Lone parent households
• 35 of children in lone parent families are at
  risk of poverty in EU (ranges from 20 to 57)
• Large households (3 children)
• 25 of children in large families are at risk of
  poverty (ranges from 9 to 47)
• Jobless households
• but also those in low paid and insecure
  employment
• High risk for immigrant and ethnic minority
  children (especially Roma)

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Children At Risk of Extreme Poverty

• children living in/leaving institutions
• children with a disability
• victims of violence, abuse and trafficking
• unaccompanied migrant children
• child forced into child labour
• children with parents working abroad
• homeless/street children

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6 preconditions for effective action

• 1. Political priority and public support
• make children and families in general and child
  poverty in particular a political priority
• 2. Mobilisation and participation of all actors
• Central and local government agencies
• Social partners NGOs
• Key advocacy role of EU Networks of NGOs
  (Eurochild, Euronet, EFSC, ENOC)
• Academics
• - Voice of Children
• 3. Commitment to childrens rights and to
  anti-discrimination
• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• puts the needs of the child at the centre of
  policy making
• puts the focus on addressing the specific needs
  of the child here and now and not just on
  improving the position of their families and the
  communities in which they live
• provides a useful framework for developing a
  comprehensive strategy to prevent and reduce
  child poverty
• mix of survival rights, development rights,
  protection rights and participation rights
• puts the focus on the best interests of the child
  and on accountability and responsibility of both
  national authorities and families to ensure this
• puts a focus on the importance of adopting and
  enforcing strong legislation against
  discrimination as an essential element in
  preventing and reducing poverty and social
  exclusion

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6 preconditions for effective action

• 4. Policy Mainstreaming and Coordination
• integrate a concern with the well-being and
  social inclusion of children into all relevant
  areas of policy-making including budgetary
  decision making
• establish arrangements to ensure political and
  administrative coordination across different
  policy domains and between different levels of
  governance (national, regional, local) and avoid
  policy fragmentation
• coordinate the efforts of all stakeholders
• 5. A Strategic Approach based on Clear Objectives
  
• A key element in developing a strategic approach
  to tackling child poverty is the establishment of
  clear priorities including the setting of
  specific goals and targets
• 6. Good data and analysis
• essential for policy planning, implementation and
  effective monitoring
• Multidimensional more than just income
• Specific studies of vulnerable groups
• More on trends
• Age breakdowns
• Childrens perceptions
• Persuasive power of transnational comparisons

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A Comprehensive Policy Framework

• There is no one solution
• a multidimensional, comprehensive and joined-up
  policy approach and coordinated delivery is
  necessary to address the complexity of the issue
• 4 Key elements
• 1. Ensure an Adequate Income
• increase access of parents (especially women) to
  employment
• reconciling work and family life flexible
  working targeted training and activation
  incentives to employers
• make work pay for parents
• minimum wage retaining benefits on moving into
  work - in-work benefits reducing employment
  traps prioritising tax reliefs reducing costs
  associated with employment - raising skills
  levels reducing irregular employment
• provide adequate income support to families with
  children
• 2. Improve Access to Services
• decent housing and safe environment
• access to health and social services for all
  children
• inclusive education systems which counter/prevent
  educational disadvantage
• early education - preventing school drop out -
  integrating minorities - reducing financial
  barriers
• affordable, high quality child care
• affordable transport

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VITAL ROLE OF SOCIAL TRANSFERS At-risk-of-poverty
rate before and after social transfers impact
of social transfers (excluding pensions) on
poverty risk for children and for the overall
population (in of the poverty risk including
all social transfers), 2005
Source SILC (2005) - income year 2004 (income
year 2005 for IE and the UK) except for BG and
RO estimates based on 2005 national household
budget survey UK data provisional
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A Comprehensive Policy Framework

• 3. Ensure Care and Protection
• early intervention and support to vulnerable
  families
• effective child protection services for children
  at risk
• deinstitutionalisation and support in the
  community
• 4. Promote Participation
• opportunities to participate in social, cultural,
  sporting recreational activities

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3 cross-cutting themes

• Early intervention
• aim at ensuring the best start in life for every
  child by combining early education with
  childcare, health and family support services,
  parental outreach and employment advice for
  disadvantaged families
• Balance universal and targeted policies
• . . . it would seem that the most successful
  Member States are those that adopt a
  predominantly universal approach based on a
  strong belief in preventing problems arising and
  in ensuring equal opportunities for all children
  backed up as necessary by targeted policies to
  address particular extreme situations a sort of
  tailored universalism. While there may be
  pressure in Member States with the most severe
  problems to focus on alleviation it is
  nevertheless true that the structural nature of
  the phenomenon makes it urgent to combat poverty
  and social exclusion under a more preventative
  approach as well. Tackling child poverty and
  promoting the social inclusion of children in the
  EU Key lessons, 2007
• Balance prevention and alleviation
• policy can seek both to reduce the extent of
  societal inequalities in childhood socio-economic
  circumstances, and to weaken the linkages between
  those circumstances and the opportunities that
  people face as they pass through education system
  and into the labour market

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• the (EU) countries achieving the best outcomes
  are those that perform well on all fronts,
  notably by combining strategies facilitating
  access to employment with enabling services
  (child care, etc.) and income support.
• Child poverty and well-being in the EU, SPC,
  2008

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Relative outcomes of countries related to child
poverty risk and main determinants of child
poverty risk
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Effective delivery - 1

• Partnership/networking and participation
• partnership and dialogue at local levels help
  with the identification of problems and
  disadvantaged groups, in directing social
  assistance and in activating people experiencing
  poverty and social exclusion
• The local dimension
• support needs to be close to where people are and
  needs to be coordinated and integrated at point
  of delivery
• vital to involve local actors in the preparation,
  implementation and monitoring of plans
• define clearly the roles and responsibilities of
  the different levels of governance and ensure
  that they are mutually reinforcing
• Continuity and creating pathways for progression
• some families and children may only need
  particular help and assistance intermittently or
  in the short term
• others will need longer-term and consistent
  support which fosters their personal growth and
  development over time, Thus ensure that services
  are developed with a long-term perspective

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Effective delivery - 2

• Flexible and tailored responses
• services need to be delivered in ways that
  respond to the needs of each child and their
  family.
• i.e. flexible and delivered in a way that is
  tailored to meet their particular needs.
• A community development approach
• deliver policies and programmes in ways which
  empower people and avoid stigmatising them
• community development can
• contribute significantly to strengthening the
  quality of community life in disadvantaged
  communities by promoting strong family, social
  and community networks and a healthy
  infrastructure of community and voluntary
  organisations
• empower parents and children who are at risk of
  exclusion and isolation
• help parents and children to act together to
  change their situation and to work together with
  others to overcome barriers to their active
  participation in society such as poverty, lack of
  access to resources, rights, goods and services
  and discrimination
• Regular monitoring and reporting
• increases accountability
• encourages continuous improvement
• value of EU as well as national monitoring and
  reporting

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Summary5 key points

• five essential actions to ensure an effective
  strategy
• 1. Make the social inclusion of all children
  and the reduction of child poverty a high
  political goal and establish institutional
  arrangements for mainstreaming and coordinating
  policy efforts to promote the social inclusion of
  children across all policy domains and in all key
  policy documents. In doing so, invest in
  building the capacity of national, regional and
  local administrations to deliver policies in a
  co-ordinated manner on the ground in partnership
  with children living in poverty, their parents
  and the organisations that work with them.
• 2. Develop effective income support schemes that
  will guarantee that all families with children
  have an income sufficient to live life with
  decency and will ensure their personal
  development. In working towards this first focus
  on raising the incomes of those who are in acute
  poverty and those at risk of being long-term in
  poverty.
• 3. Assist the transition to work for unemployed
  parents with young children and those parenting
  alone through a combination of education and
  employment measures, affordable and accessible
  childcare and income supports. Give especial
  attention to those experiencing extreme and
  long-term poverty.
• 4. Increase the access of children living in
  poverty to essential services (especially
  housing, child care, health services, family and
  social services and education) so as to ensure
  their well-being and personal development. Give
  a particular priority to intervening early to
  support children and families in acute poverty
  and at risk of living in persistent poverty.
• 5. Ensure that there is effective legislation in
  place to promote childrens rights and to counter
  discrimination against children and families from
  ethnic minorities (especially the Roma) and that
  appropriate institutional arrangements are in
  place to enforce anti-discrimination legislation
  and to promote their inclusion in mainstream
  society.

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Conclusion

• At the end of the day preventing and reducing
  child poverty is an essential task for all
  countries. It is an investment not only in the
  rights and well-being of children but in the
  human and social capital of a nation and thus in
  its future economic, social and cultural
  well-being.
• Child poverty and exclusion will not disappear
  without well planned and coherent strategies to
  promote the inclusion of children. Progress
  involves making a conscious choice to prioritise
  and invest in children and their families.

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Some useful sources

• EU Social Inclusion Commission web site at
  http//ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/child_p
  overty_en.htm
• Social Protection Committee, Child Poverty and
  Well-Being in the EU Current status and way
  forward, European Commission, 2008
• H. Frazer, E. Marlier, Tackling child poverty and
  promoting the social inclusion of children in the
  EU Key lessons, European Commission 2007,
  available at http//www.peer-review-social-inclusi
  on.net/policy-assessment-activities/reports/first-
  semester-2007/synthesis-report-2007-1/
• E. Marlier, A. Atkinson, B. Cantillon, B. Nolan,
  The EU and Social Inclusion Facing the
  challenges,The Policy Press, 2007