Data portal on children's rights launched

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Monday launched a data portal on children's rights to promote evidence-based decision making.

UNICEF, in collaboration with the Council for the Welfare of Children, the National Economic and Development Authority, and the Philippine Statistics Authority, launched the "Situation of Children of the Philippines" website.

The portal analyzes six main dimensions and 25 subdimensions of children's rights, such as health and nutrition; education; protection; safe and sustainable environment; child poverty and social protection; and civil and participation rights.

“Every child counts. Understanding the situation of children is essential to prioritize, design and monitor policies and actions that effectively support the realization of children’s rights," UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said.

"When the right data and evidence are in the right hands at the right time, decisions can be better informed, more equitable, and more likely to protect children’s rights,” Dendevnorov added.

The data features over 80 key indicators and around data visualizations based on information dating back to 1989 and up to 2023, with subnational breakdowns for certain indicators.

UNICEF noted that despite the Philippines being considered the global epicenter of online sexual abuse and exploitation and child exploitation materials, "there is not enough data on this egregious child right's violation."

UNICEF's data revealed that 80 percent of Filipino children are vulnerable to online sexual abuse, with some cases even facilitated even by their own parents.

Additionally, key data gaps exist in the areas of disaster risk preparedness, planning, and response monitoring, climate change impacts on children, social protection and public financing for children, children with disabilities, early childhood education, children's civil rights and participation, and richer local-level data on children in the provincial, municipal/city, and barangay levels.

UNICEF urged the Philippine government to provide better strategic solutions and more investments to develop sustained data for children's rights.

By launching the platform, UNICEF said it hopes to engage stakeholders in addressing evolving evidence needs and gaps, as well as advocating for stronger evidence-based decision making.

The website will be periodically updated to help government agencies, development partners, and other child rights organizations to be responsive in their evidence-based policies and programming for children.

UNICEF also encouraged users to explore the platform, share it within their networks, and use the insights provided to drive impactful change for the lives of children.

"The site will benefit from contributions from researchers and child rights actors that can help strengthen the understanding of the situation of children in the Philippines," the UN agency added.