Screening Indicators for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)

Abstract

Since children are the key stakeholders supporting and being affected by sustainable development, the framework for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) was proposed. It addresses social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development by considering seven relevant themes of child development, i.e., health, education, safety, economic status, relationship, environmental aspects and participation. However, an indicator set for initiating the SCDI is still missing. In this study, indicators for the themes, subthemes and criteria of SCDI are identified from literature and then analyzed regarding data availability. Sixty-six indicators with statistical data covering at least 100 countries are selected as the indicator set for the SCDI. The results indicate that data availability is best for indicators describing the themes of health and education, and worst for indicators addressing the themes of relationship and participation. Furthermore, 21 subthemes and 50 criteria described by indicators with limited data availability are identified for future indicator and data development. By providing an initial indicator set and screening the indicators with regard to data availability, the practicality of the SCDI framework is expected. Furthermore, the indicator set can serve as a potential indicator pool for other child and sustainable development related studies.

The Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) for Countries

“…For instance, the theme health specifies 17 subthemes (e.g., child mortality, risk behavior, mental health), described by 44 criteria (e.g., infant mortality, suicide, adolescent fertility), measured by 48 indicators (e.g., infant mortality rate, suicide rate and adolescent fertility rate). Details of topic and indicator collection and classification can be found in Chang et al [17,20]. Figure 1 displays the overall structure of the SCDI framework.…”

“…Although the initial indicator set of 66 indicators was previously selected by Chang et al [20], considering such a large number of indicators in one index may pose challenges for data collection as well as for indicator aggregation to an index, and thus impede the practicality of the SCDI. Therefore, the first focus of this study is to reduce the number of indicators for enhancing the practicality of the SCDI.…”

“…On the basis of previous work of the authors [17,20], this study aims at establishing the SCDI by fine-tuning the indicator set, calculating the SCDI for countries, and analyzing the similarity between the SCDI and existing development indices.…”

“…In addition to the framework of the SCDI, an initial indicator set consisting of 66 indicators was proposed considering data availability [20]. Statistical data for each of the 66 indicators are available for at least 100 countries.…”

“…Figure 1. Structure of the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) framework (exemplary criteria and indicator are presented for the subtheme attendance of education and highlighted in dark grey), adapted from Chang et al [17,20].…”