Innocenti Social Monitor 2004

Innocenti Social Monitor 2004 reviews recent socio-economic trends in the 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It examines child poverty in an integrating world from four different perspectives: Economic Growth and Child Poverty looks at children in poverty related to family income and indicates that since the late 1990s steady economic growth has reduced the proportion of people living in households with incomes below national subsistence minima. Despite years of good intentions and more recent economic growth, large numbers of children in the region remain trapped in poverty. Economic Integration, Labour Markets and Children finds that integration into the global economy, as measured by trade and volumes of foreign direct investment, has grown across the region, but is particularly concentrated in the new EU member countries. It shows that conventional market adjustment mechanisms have impoverished children in disadvantaged areas of many countries. Migration Trends and Policy Implications finds that migration has grown greatly in the region since the 1980s; reasons for this upsurge include the fragmentation of nations from eight countries into 27 at the start of the 1990s, causing many people to migrate. The article stresses the need for governments in both originating and receiving countries to better manage migration and increase avenues for legal migration across the region. Young People and Drugs: Increasing Health Risks, investigates the health consequences of the use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs by children and young people, particularly the links between drug use and young people’s deaths across the region. Additionally, the Statistical Annex covers a broad range of indicators for the years 1989 to 2002-2003,including population trends, births and fertility, mortality, family formation, health, education, child protection, crime, income, as well as a comprehensive statistical profile of each country in the region.