The Child Visibility Index: A Data-Driven Framework for Measuring Children's Presence in Public Policy and Administrative Systems

This working paper introduces the Child Visibility Index (CVI), a data-driven diagnostic framework for assessing whether public systems provide the minimum conditions through which children and caregivers can become visible early enough for preventive attention to be possible.

The paper develops the concept of Child Visibility as a preventive systems construct comprising five layers: formal recognition, institutional contact, continuity of contact, risk visibility, and social visibility. The current version of the CVI operationalises the first three through 14 harmonised population-level indicators drawn primarily from UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), organised across three dimensions: Recognition, Accessibility, and Continuity.

The methodology specifies indicator selection, absolute normalisation, hierarchical and geometric aggregation, missing-data rules, confidence flags, sensitivity analysis, and a validation framework designed for a formative composite indicator. The CVI is intended as a diagnostic rather than a ranking instrument: it does not predict individual family separation risk, measure child protection effectiveness, or establish child-level trajectories.

The paper also introduces a complementary Pathway Assessment for interpreting CVI signals within national institutional, administrative, social protection, and data-governance contexts. Together, the two layers are designed to identify where visibility conditions appear weak, fragmented, or discontinuous and to support earlier, rights-sensitive policy attention.

This paper was prepared for the Policy for Data Conference 2026.