The Multi-National Project for Monitoring and Measuring Children's Well-Being is an ongoing, multi-phase effort to improve our ability to measure and monitor the status of children around the globe.
During Phase One (1996-2000), over 80 experts from a variety of disciplines and organizations in 28 countries worked collaboratively to redefine the concept of children's well-being, and to identify new and more appropriate indicators for measuring and monitoring the status of children beyond survival. During this phase the project was known as "Measuring and Monitoring Children's Well-being: Beyond Survival." Five domains of children's well-being and approximately 60 indicators were identified.
The project's second phase was launched in 2001 and will continue through 2005. Renamed as the "Multi-National Project for Monitoring and Measuring Children's Well-Being," our objectives are fourfold:
- To identify indicator measures and build a reliable and valid scientific protocol for collecting new data on children's well-being.
- To build a collaborative multi-national network of partners and local researchers who use this protocol to study children's well-being.
- develop an archive of the data collected in the national and local studies.
- To build a strategic plan for disseminating the knowledge gained from the studies, and to build partnerships with potential users of the data — professionals, policy-makers, advocates, communities, children and youth.
Phase Two of the project is a collaborative effort of four institutions from 3 different countries. Planning grants were received from the W.T. Grant foundation and the Federal Inter-agency forum on child statistics in the USA.
This website provides information on the rationale for the project, the history of Phase 1 and the domains and indicators identified. Additionally, it contains information on the measures identified for the indicators during Phase 2. We hope that it will serve as a tool for anyone interested in measuring and monitoring children's well-being.
We want to emphasize that our measures work is still in progress, and we welcome all suggestions and comments. Additionally for more details on the project please contact the project coordinators: Dr. Asher Ben-Arieh, Dr. Robert M. Goerge.