This book focuses on projects using child indicators outside of a research context and provides a user-friendly set of materials to help professionals or organizations start and sustain high-quality child indicator projects. The book is based on the fundamental idea that better data leads to better decisions regarding programs for children. The number of people with experience and expertise in developing child indicator projects is limited in many countries. This initiative provides critical information on the topic in a cost-effective manner, and thereby fills an important niche regarding the use of child indicators. To the extent that it promotes more and better child indicator projects, the book leads to more attention for children and better decision-making regarding public support for children. It is also likely to increase the number of such projects that exist and to improve the quality of such projects.

This easy-to-use and practical guide is for all professionals and organizations working with child indicators data.

Dr. William O'Hare has had more than 40 years of experience using data in applied settings. For fifteen years he supervised the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT project in the U.S. He was a founding member of the International Society of Child Indicators. He has published a couple of books and many articles based on child indicators and data on children.