The CPI consultant Prof. Osman E.M Nour participated in the second seminar on Child Well-being Index for the countries on the Mediterranean region, organized by the Medchild Institute and held at the UNICEF Research Centre (Florence), Italy, on the 22nd of june , 2006.
In addition to Mr. David Parker, Deputy Director, and Ms. Eva Jespersen, Chief Economic and Social Policies UNICEF, IRC, the seminar was attended by 12 experts working on the issue of child wellbeing index in various countries. Their presentations reflected different experiences in constructing Child Well-being Index.
The president of Medchild Foundation (Mr. Burno Musso) gave an overview of the Medchild Projects, and the president of Lynkeus (Prof. Edwin Feletcher) gave a proposal aiming at using appropriate child indicators and GIS as a policy – assessment tool. Prof. Jacques Van Der Gaag, President of Amsterdam Institute for International Development, presented a study on "Updating of the Medchild Wellbeing Index" with special focus on poverty issues in Morocco and Albania.
Prof. Nour proposed a Child Wellbeing Index (CWI) for the cities in the MENA region, constructed on the basis of local data. The indicators and the domains selected for the proposed CWI, should be based on the availability of the data at local level and on the socio-cultural set-up of the countries in the MENA region. The CPI proposes a new methodology of school questionnaire to be completed by teachers on the subject of the well-being of their pupils. The CPI is planning to carry out one or two case studies to help in assessing the concrete validity of the proposed CWI in MENA cities.