Using Child Indicators to Influence Policy: A Comparative Case Study

Economic indicators have guided economic policymaking for almost a century. A wide range of social indicators have become increasingly important to policy debates over the last half century. But child indicators are only recently having impact on the policy process. This is likely due to the relative recency of children’s issues as a formal focus of policy making and to the relative conceptual and methodological immaturity of child indicator data systems. But, as evidenced by new journals, books, data series and practices, the child indicator movement and its relevance to policymaking is undergoing rapid transformation and change. Increasingly, governments and non-governmental organizations throughout the world recognize that children are their nation’s (and the world’s) future. And indicators of children’s welfare and well-being, if designed and used in particular ways (Aber & Jones, 1997; Ben-Arieh, 2008; Moore & Brown 2006), are increasingly influential in the policy formulation, implementation and evaluation processes.