Monitoring Key Welfare Indicators of Children and their Families in Georgia

The Welfare Monitoring Survey (WMS) 2017 is the fifth study in a series that commenced in 2009. It is part of a concerted effort by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide relevant information with regard to monitoring the welfare status of children and their families in Georgia. The WMS is a biennial longitudinal survey covering all government-controlled regions of the country.

The aim of this particular study was three-fold:

• First, to review recent socio-economic trends in Georgia;
• Second, to assess the dynamics of key welfare indicators and compare the findings with the results of earlier rounds of the WMS; and
• Third, to capture the effects of Georgia’s Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) reform and provide policy-makers with detailed information on developments that have taken place since the introduction of the new methodology and benefits scheme.

The fifth round of the WMS was nationally representative, with 4,697 face-to-face interviews completed throughout Georgia.

Based on the data obtained from the fifth round of the survey, the study examined the prevalence and distribution of issues such as consumption poverty, material deprivation, subjective poverty, and social exclusion, and made particular reference to the role of social transfers and the well-being of children. The study also examined trends with respect to people’s perceptions of being in poverty and how it affects the education of children.

The study results served UNICEF and other project stakeholders by outlining positive and negative trends in relation to key welfare indicators, with a particular focus on children, and supported them to build future strategies aimed at improving people’s well-being and reducing child poverty.