Children in Maldives : analysis of children of the Maldives from census 2014

Abstract

Children remain at the center of the development priorities set out by the government. These include the provision of high-quality education for all Maldivian children, with the aim that no child will be left behind. These policies focus on ensuring the provision of education and skills beginning from primary education. More recently pre-school education has been included as the foundation stage of the new national curriculum. Given that today’s children will become tomorrow’s workforce, government policies are geared towards developing capable, professional youth with the necessary skills to foster economically productive and actively engaged citizens in the future. While detailed disaggregated data on socio-economic aspects of children are needed in order to support evidence based decision making and ensure the well-being of our children, there is a lack of data specifically on children in Maldives. ln the absence of such data, census data has been valuable in the formulation and successful implementation of various development policies related to children, including the progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was highlighted in the last MDG report that Maldives has achieved five out of eight MDG goals. Although most of the MDG indicators require concerted effort from a number of stakeholders, census data has contributed significantly to the achievement of MDGs, through better monitoring and evaluation and in the development of suitable polices and interventions. Likewise, I hope this report will be a useful contributor for developing representative data for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals relevant for the children. At present, the 2014 population Census of Maldives remain the most comprehensive source of information available at the most disaggregated level. Census provide data on socio-economic and demographic characteristics of our population. As such, this analysis on children of Maldives is developed using 2014 census results to understand the situation of children in the country. This analysis focuses on the key areas such as demography, living arrangement, education, labour force, nuptiality and fertility of the child population below the age of 18 years. It is intended to support planners make better-informed decisions in formulating national policies, where action is urgently required. The demography of the Maldives has undergone tremendous changes over the past two decades. The number of children in the population has decreased by 20,000 children during the period 2000 and 2014. While the child population below the age of 18 has decreased over the most recent censuses 2006 and 2014, the number of children under the age of 1 as well as children below 5 years of age has increased slightly. The share of population made up of children fell from 50 percent in 1995 to 33 percent in 2014. As per the current population projections based on the 2014 census, the share of children in the population is expected to decrease further, to reach 25 percent by the year 2030 and further to 18 percent by the year 2050. This changing age structure has important implications on the child population and many of its socio-economic characteristics. Need to bring population issues within overall development strategies; strengthen the institutional setting to address population issues; expand population and development research; and enhance advocacy on population and development issues have also been highlighted by previous analysis done recently on population dynamics using the census 2014 data. It is the intention of the Government to continue investing in the collection of regular data on the socio- economic aspects of children in the Maldives on a regular basis through censuses, surveys and through strengthening of existing government administrative systems and through alternative data sources. The production of this report is an outcome resulting from a lot of hard work, and valuable inputs from numerous people over a period of time technically and financially.