Focus on children

Other countries in the EU are also implementing belt-tightening policies that will have an impact on the next generation. The new UNICEF report inevitably relies on relatively old data from the 2009-2010 period and therefore only hints at how the current turbulences are affecting young people.

Before the financial turmoil hit in earnest, most rich nations had seen improvements in the five areas of children's lives measured by UNICEF: material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviors and risks, and house and environment. In all countries surveyed, the "low family affluence rate," the number of young smokers and the infant mortality rate had dropped since the early 2000s. Greece and Hungary lead the immunization table with a 99 percent immunization rate for measles, polio and DPT3 for toddlers. Contrary to popular perceptions, risky behavior -- alcohol consumption, teenage pregnancies, cigarette and cannabis smoking -- has declined in the past decade.

But the survey also shows important disparities between countries and varying strengths and weaknesses. Material well-being was measured both by the relative poverty of children living in households where disposable income is less than 50 percent of the national median and the child poverty gap, which shows how far below the poverty line they have fallen. In both indicators, the United States fared very poorly, with child poverty over 20 percent and a poverty gap of nearly 40 percent.

Overall, the Netherlands, in the top five in all categories, appears to be one of the best countries for children to grow up in, followed by four Nordic countries -- Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden -- while southern European countries, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, where the situation has probably worsened further since the data was collected, were at the bottom of the overall table together with the US. 

Turkey does not feature in this report, but policymakers could learn from this comparative study. Most of the nations surveyed are classified by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the "very high development" category but others like Romania and Bulgaria are in the "high development" league alongside Turkey. Educational well-being was measured by the rate of early education and further education enrolment, by average OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores in reading, math and science as well as by the percentage of 15 to 19 year-old NEET (Not in Employment, Education and Training). According to OECD figures, Turkey, where the NEET ratio is estimated at 37.7 percent, still lags far behind all the countries studied by UNICEF, including the worst scorer, Bulgaria (less than 16 percent).

One of the most interesting findings -- and perhaps the most encouraging, as far as Turkey and other emerging economies are concerned -- is the absence of a direct relationship between per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and overall child well-being. Slovenia ranks higher than Canada, the Czech Republic higher than Austria. Three rich nations, the UK, the US and Canada, were found among the bottom third on child mortality rates. In fact, Central and Eastern European countries appear to be closing the gap with their western European peers.

The key to improving children's well-being, it seems, can be found in policies. Many rich nations, in the throes of economic difficulties, will struggle to preserve recent gains in the coming period. For a country on the up like Turkey, improving the education and well-being of its young population is crucial to supporting the country's economic ambitions. “For every new policy measure considered or introduced, governments explicitly have to explore the impact and effects on children, families with children, adolescents and young adults," Gordon Alexander, director of UNICEF's Office of Research, said. "These groups do not have a voice in the political processes or their voices are too seldom heard."