Child Well-Being Dashboard Development in Estonia: Social Equality and Equity Perspectives

The aim of the paper is to introduce the first steps of child well-being dashboard development in Estonia. Children are born into this world with differing life chances and unequal opportunities. Public policies aim to reduce those inequalities, but providing equal treatment to children at different starting points does not lead to equitable outcomes. A universal approach to ensuring a good childhood does not consider the needs of all children. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a data-based social investment model for a good childhood that takes into account social equality and equity.

Effective social investment in children requires data that better captures children’s well-being and includes all children. The WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission has recommended to countries to develop user-friendly dashboards for monitoring child well-being, which would also allow tracking the well-being of children in disadvantaged situations. Iceland has taken considerable steps toward fair, proactive, and early intervention by launching a cross-sectoral child well-being dashboard, which also allows for monitoring well-being of disadvantaged children. In Iceland, child well-being is measured in five dimensions - health and well-being, security and protection, participation and social connection, quality of life, and education.

As a first step of child well-being dashboard development in Estonia, applicability of the Icelandic child well-being model was analysed. In Estonia, data on children are fragmented, with insufficient representation of disadvantaged groups and children under seven years old. Child-related data comes from a range of separate and disconnected international and national surveys and datasets, each with its own focus and sometimes partially overlapping. The concept of a good childhood and data-based social investment that considers equality and equity is still in its early stages in Estonia. However, the importance of the child well-being dashboard is acknowledged and further steps are on the way.