Side event to the International Forum on Migration Statistics
- Date: Wednesday, 25 January, 2023
- Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Chile (Santiago) Time (GMT -3)
Content will be available in Spanish and French.
While there has generally been progress in many aspects of migration statistics in recent years, notorious gaps persist when it comes to data and evidence concerning children on the move, who are among the most vulnerable populations on earth. As of 2020, 35.5 million children were estimated to be living outside their country of birth, while 36.5 million children were displaced within borders or across them. Away from home, many of these children face deprivations and serious threats to their well-being. For example, about 600 children have died crossing borders since January 2020.
Despite the staggering numbers, however, widespread data gaps exist across national data systems. 4 in 10 countries with data on refugees do not provide reliable data on age, while 3 in 10 countries and territories do not have age-disaggregated migrant stock data. Whatever data available are further hindered by large gaps that obscure the most basic information about the circumstances before, during and after children’s journey. Ensuring targeted interventions that meet the protection and development needs of these children will require reliable, timely and disaggregated data.
Faced with financial, technical and other resource constraints, however, many countries lack the capacity to establish well-functioning data systems, or even integrate child-sensitive lens into data collection and information management systems as a first step. Robust partnerships and investments (political, technical and financial) in child-focused data work are crucially needed to effectively bridge the data and evidence gaps on children on the move.
In this context, the International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC)’s parallel session seeks to address the following questions:
- How to overcome the technical, technological and other bottlenecks that hinder progress in disaggregating data at the national level to ensure that children on the move are counted?
- What contributions can different stakeholders offer to resolve the data gaps on migrant and displaced children?
- How to avoid overlaps, build synergies and promote common standards?
- What are some of the good practices and practical solutions that bridge data gaps on children on the move?
The session will draw from the perspectives and experiences of multiple actors, including IDAC members and working groups that are seeking to find solutions to the persistent data gaps on children on the move.
- Check out the provisional agenda here!