article Social Indicators Research published online

 

A new article has been published online in Social Indicators Research entitled Child Poverty in Vietnam – providing insights using a country-specific and multidimensional model. The article discusses the development of a country-specific and multidimensional approach to measure child poverty in Vietnam and presents an extensive child poverty profile. The article builds on a previously published article in Child Indicators Research, which discussed the development of the approach in detail and thereby highlighted the importance of being clear and transparent in the development of child poverty approaches. The full reference of the article in SIR is as follows:

Roelen, Keetie, Franziska Gassmann and Chris de Neubourg (2009) “Child Poverty in Vietnam – providing insights using a country-specific and multidimensional model”, Social Indicators Research, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-009-9522-x

finishing my dissertation

 

It’s been a while since I last posted something so let me give you a short update. There is a good reason that I have not been updating you because there has been fairly little to tell you. I am now in final stages of finishing my dissertation (or at least the first draft) and this has been at the centre of my attention for the last weeks. My goal is to submit this first version before the Christmas holidays so I can start a few new projects in the new year. Of course that won’t be the end of the whole process yet as the reading committee needs to read it and give comments and I will have to process those comments accordingly. But at least the end is in sight!

Short visit to Seoul

 

This week I paid a very short but interesting visit to Seoul in South Korea. I was invited to present at the International Conference on Global and National Strategy for Poverty Reduction, organized by the Graduate School of Public Administration of SNU and UNRISD. The two-day programme focused on discussions related to social policy in Asia and how these can contribute to poverty reduction. Presentations focused on the specific experiences in Korea over the last decades and how they could be relevant for other countries in the South East and East Asia region. But there were also presentations on programmes in Africa, outlining their policy context, achievements and drawbacks. My presentation focused on the social welfare programmes in Vietnam and what their impact is in terms of child poverty. One the one hand, we considered the performance in terms of coverage and targeting and on the other hand, we used different methods to assess the actual impact on child poverty. The paper was a primarily empirical study of the programmes, using household survey data and taking a purely micro-perspective. Although relevant to the topic of social policy as poverty reducation strategies, it did not quite fit the other presentations as these focused more on the bigger picture, policy context of social programmes and the political economy. Conclusions during the closing session of the conference consequently focused on such macro and political aspects of social policies, highlighting the importance of employment opportunities amongst others. But probably the most passionate and important message from one participant was that whatever we do, we should always remember that we are talking about people. People that have to withstand unbearable situations and living conditions and that it is everybody’s responsibility to improve these people’s lives and not look away.

 

Seoul by night

“Mini-Maastricht” training in BiH

 

Last week, two colleagues and myself were in Sarajevo for a so-called “Mini-Maastricht” training for the UNICEF staff in the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) office. The training was referred to as mini-Maastricht because many UNICEF staff have taken the full Maastricht course that is especially designed for UNICEF. The third round of this full training took place last spring, which incorporates a preparatory e-learning phase and a two-week face-to-face training in Maastricht. Although we have trained about 600 UNICEF staff by means of this full programme during three rounds from 2006 to 2009, it is not option for all staff. To provide everybody in the UNICEF BiH office, UNICEF asked us to provide a shortened version of the full Maastricht training, which was then conveniently referred to as the “Mini-Maastricht” training…

The training was not held in Sarajevo but in the ski-resort of Jahorina. This was to make sure that the participants were not distracted by their email and other office occupations. During the three training days, we discussed a range of issues including poverty measurement, fiscal space and social budgeting, economic growth and development, targeting and child allowance and social inclusion in the EU. Lectures were combined with exercises and the whole training was concluded with a policy exercise. The participants were asked to advise on the introduction of a child benefit scheme in BiH using evidence. Especially this last exercise was also an interesting learning experience for us as neither of us had ever been to the country before. One thing that become obvious is that the administrative and bureaucratic structures in BiH are very complicated and it is everything but an easy task for the UNICEF staff to work on policies that improve the lives of children. Hopefully, the training contributed to some improvement!

Old town in Sarajevo

Article Child Indicators Research finally in print!

 

The article The Importance of Choice and Definition for the Measurement of Child Poverty -the case of Vietnam will finally be printed in Child Indicators Research. It was already published and available online on the website of the Springer webstie but will now also be available in a paginated issue, namely Volume 2, Issue 3 (2009), page 245.

Talking about poverty in Myanmar

 

Last week I returned from a trip to Myanmar where I was a resource person for two workshops organized by UNICEF. The first workshop was a two-day event for government officials, academic researchers and civil society delegates on social policy. This included topics such as the social budgeting, experiences of social policies in the Asian region and poverty, the topic about which I spoke. The second workshop was a smaller get-together of UNICEF and UNDP staff, going into the more technical details of monetary and multidimensional poverty measurement and what makes it different for children.

It was a very interesting week in Myanmar. The workshops encouraged active discussion and received positive feedback, which was in contrast to expectations. Of course, poverty is a sensitive topic to discuss and we (the resource persons as well as UNICEF) were a bit unsure about how to approach the discussion. But it appeared to be no problem to actually call poverty ” poverty”  and participants seemed comfortable enough to discuss issues around conceptualization and measurement. Also, without having much previous information about the country of Myanmar apart from the obvious, the country  positively surprised me. People are very friendly and open and the landscape is just beautiful. Just a shame that it was the middle of the monsoon period so everything had to be watched from behind a curtain of rain…

Social Assistance in Kosovo – does it make a difference?

 

I am now in a sunny and hot Prishtina for our final mission within the project for UNICEF Kosovo. Over the last 6 months, we have conducted a policy evaluation and impact analysis and impact analysis of social assistance cash transfers in Kosovo. As this project was commissioned by UNICEF, our main focus was on children. We used both quantitative and qualitative information as the basis for our analysis, providing a comprehensive and in-depth view into te social assistance scheme and how it relates to children.

The quantitative data used was two-fold. On the hand, we worked with administrative data that the ministries provided. On the other hand, we used the household budget survey to compose a poverty profile, consider coverage and leakage of the social assistance scheme and simulate alternative schemes. The qualitative data for the study  had to be collected especially for the purposes of this study. Together with a local consultancy team, we developed the research design and moderator guides. On the basis of the research design, focus group discussions with social assistance recipients and non-recipients were  conducted. In-depth interviews were also held with employees of the Centres for Social Welfare, which administer the social assistance scheme.

The collection of qualitative information by means of interviews and focus group discussions was conducted in April and below are some pictures.

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draft results were presented today to representatives of the various ministries, statistical office and international  organizations. The main findings included the large exclusion error of the social assistance scheme, the good targetintg performance and feelings of frustration with recipients and non-recipients of social assistance concerning the rigid eligibility criteria. Comments from the audience will be processes in order to deliver the final draft of our study. And hopefully this provides meaningful input into the reconsideration of the social assistance scheme and possible amendments. After all, we’re not just conducting these studies for the mere sake of conducting studies…

UNICEF Learning Programme

 

I’ve been back in the office for the last two weeks and they were quite a hectic return to work after my leave. The day I returned in the beginning of June marked the start of the 2009 UNICEF Learning Programme. Over a period of 2 weeks, we welcomed about 80 UNICEF staff members to Maastricht for a face-to-face training on evidence-based policy making. The participants had already worked in a two-month E-Learning phase in which we (re-)introduced basic economic concepts and issues relating to poverty, economic growth and public finance. The face-to-face training in Maastricht built on the basic knowledge and dealt with topics such as poverty, child poverty, social policy and policy evaluation in detail.

This is the third time that MGSoG is running this programme and it still is an exciting task. The UNICEF staff from all over the world bring their own ideas and experiences from the field, making the training very interactive and lively. It’s not just theory that we’re discussing but we also relate to the “real-world” and what the UNICEF staff members have to deal with in the field.

We now have a week “break” and coming Sunday we will welcome a second group of about 100 participants for another two weeks. Another hectic but certainly interesting period.

Lecturing during the UNICEF Learning Programme

Lecturing during UNICEF Learning Programme

will be back soon!

 

It has been quite long since I last put an update on this blog, which is a shame as there are many things to report on. The last weeks have been hectic and busy with many different activities involving research, project work as well as teaching. In a few weeks I will be back with an update on the qualitative data collection and project work in Kosovo, the UNICEF Learning Programme starting in June and the PhD writing camp. The picture below should provide some indication of how occupied I am at the moment…

new Working Paper online

 

A new paper in the MGSoG Working Paper Series is now online. The title of the paper is “Child Poverty in Vietnam – providing insights using a country-specific and multidimensional model” and can be found at the following link:

http://www.governance.unimaas.nl/home/publications/2009WP001.pdf