The importance of monitoring neighbourhood conditions for children's well-being and development

This paper makes the case for an OECD-wide monitoring framework of the quality of children’s local environments to aid national and local policy makers in building child-friendly neighbourhoods, and especially in attenuating geographical disparities and providing additional support to children in disadvantaged areas. It first presents the neighbourhood elements that impact children’s well-being, development, and later life outcomes, which encompass aspects of the built environment, communities’ social relationships and children’s access to basic services such as schools and health services. The paper also explores reliable metrics for each of them. Drawing lessons from an analysis of existing national and subnational monitoring initiatives, the paper then examines available, cross-national indicators that could inform an OECD-wide monitoring. Finally, the various insights that a cross-national monitoring could provide to policy makers to facilitate resource allocation, collaboration across sectors and levels of government, and cross-country learning with respect to effective policy tools are illustrated with a few examples.