With fruitful participation between the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, and UNICEF, the Second Conference on Childhood and Adolescent Well-being was held on the third of last November, in the presence of a group of specialists, researchers, and decision-makers with a great deal of experience in this file. The conference was filled with the presentation of several solid research papers that reveal hard work and strenuous effort, within the framework of the organization's agenda, which harnesses its efforts to contribute to providing a suitable humane environment for young people and their proper involvement in safe circumstances far from their exploitation and employment, not to mention the crimes and extremist practices that they fall victim to.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Saeed, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, inaugurated the conference, expressing his sincere thanks to all the attendees, including professors, students and the organizing team. His Excellency indicated that such a conference is actively seeking to come up with an agenda that includes wide-ranging aspects in terms of community work concerned with issues. Childhood and adolescence, and this came on the sidelines of announcing the acceptance of research papers on several topics: such as the emerging corona virus, youth engagement and training, gender issues, child labor, and others. The academic committee concerned with evaluating research has received many submissions and has won wide admiration and good evaluations that are worthy of great serious work, and that would come out with a set of recommendations that put the decision-maker on the right path.

Then Mr. Dr. Fazlul Al-Haque, UNICEF Egypt's deputy representative, came forward to deliver his speech, and after welcoming the honorable gathering, His Excellency thanked the Faculty of Economics and Political Science for its tireless and constructive effort in social research as the rest of the body and the topics of childhood and adolescence as a centered heart! And that his organization appreciates and crowns those efforts and enlightens the way for them, and also pays special attention and care to the researchers and all participants in the word and opinion, and that his organization does not close its door without any contribution that would move us forward towards resolving a dilemma that afflicts society or an innovation that raises the level of well-being and enhances synergy as well as societal integration.

Then Prof. Dr. Tarek Tawfik, Deputy Minister of Health and Population and Supervisor of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood, added, thanking the attendees, and thanking Prof. Mahmoud Al-Saeed and Dr. Fazlul Al-Haque and their two ancient institutions, expressing his happiness with these efforts, which resulted in the nucleus of integrated cooperation between them in a field in which work has been glorious recently where a long road of hard work has been perused, all of this is what preserves the two institutions’ high statuses.

The opening session ended with a speech by Dr. Asma Ezzat, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at our college, quickly passed the conference agenda, which included four sessions. Firstly, the first session is entitled: “Children’s Welfare and Malnutrition in Egypt”, chaired by Dr. Heba Nassar, Professor at the Department of Economics, in which a paper entitled: “Climate Changes and Child Malnutrition in Egypt” is presented, prepared by: Amira Al-Ayouti, Hala Abu Ali, and Ronia Hawash, followed by another titled: "The Relationship between Social and Demographic Factors and the Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in Egypt" prepared by: Pakinam Fikry and Noha Magdy, and the discussion and commentary is carried out by: Dr. Amira Al-Shall, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, and Dr. Naglaa Arafa, Nutrition Officer, Child Survival and Early Development, UNICEF Egypt. dr. Heba Nassar commends the first paper and its authors. The first author is Dr. Amira Al-Ayouti, Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. Dr. Amira holds a PhD in Statistics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and she is currently an Honorary Professional Research Fellow in the same faculty. The second author is Hala Abu Ali, a professor of economics at the Faculty of Cairo University, who specializes in environmental and development economics, with a focus on economic value and environmental resource modeling in developing countries. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The third author is Ronia Hawash, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Lacey School of Business. Hawash holds a BA in Economics from Cairo University. She holds a master's degree in economics from the American University in Cairo and a doctorate in economics from Indiana University, USA. Their paper titled Climate Change and Child Malnutrition in Egypt. This study investigates the effect of climate change on the geographic variation in the prevalence of stunting and wasting among children under five years of age in Egypt using the most recent available Demographic and Health Survey. The result of this paper highlights the fact that social policies and public health interventions directed to reduce the burden of child stunting must take into account geographic variation and adaptive risk factors. As for the second research paper, it was co-written by Dr. Pakinam Fikry, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. She obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in health economics from the same faculty, and she co-wrote the research paper with Dr. Noha Magdy, Assistant Lecturer, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. In 2016, Dr. Noha graduated with a BA in Economics from the same faculty. After that, she obtained a master's degree in economics from the American University in Cairo, and the research paper was titled "The Relationship between Social and Demographic Factors and the Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in Egypt", and they chose this title due to the critical situation of childhood obesity in Egypt. This paper aims to examine the relationship between social and demographic factors and obesity among children aged (0-18) years in Egypt. On the other hand, wealth scores, mother's education, wealth-area interaction, and wealth-mother's education interaction had no significant effect. Based on these findings, it is recommended to work on influencing the food choices of Egyptian families in order to be healthier, by spreading awareness among the different economic classes, whether rich or poor, and especially among women.

Then it will be followed by the second session under the title "The Role of Relationships in the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents", chaired by Dr. Alia Hafez, Head of the Nutrition Department at the United Nations World Food Program in Egypt, in which she presented a paper entitled: “Domestic Violence and Child Care: Partial Evidence in Selected Arab Countries” prepared by: Marina Hisham and Rasha Ramadan, then followed by another titled: “ The quality of connection and its impact on perceptions of the well-being of children between the ages of eight to thirteen years in the Sharabiyya neighborhood in Cairo - Egypt" Prepared by: Gehan El-Sharkawy, and the discussion and comments are conducted by: Dr. Dina Mandour, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, and Dr. Imane Helmy who is a senior economist in the Poverty and Equity Program in the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Ms. Marina Hisham is an Assistant Lecturer of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. She holds a BA in Economics from the Faculty and a Masters in Economics from the University of Paris-1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. Her research, Domestic Violence and Child Care: Micro-Level Evidence in Selected Arab Countries, examines the impact of domestic violence on child care in Arab countries. The literature has shown that intimate partner violence is expected to have a negative impact on various measures of child care through a direct or indirect mechanism. She studied the effects of different forms of domestic violence and found that all forms increase the likelihood of health problems as well as the possibility of abuse. Then the second paper entitled "The quality of bonding and its impact on perceptions of well-being among children aged 8-13 years in Al-Sharabiyya" by Dr. Jehan El Sharkawy, where she dedicated her career to children's rights. It started in 1999 with the help of local committees to provide services for children with disabilities. Dr. Jehan holds a PhD in Social Sciences from Royal Roads University with a focus in Child Welfare, and a BA in Anthropology with a minor in Art, Islamic Architecture, and Egyptology from the American University in Cairo. Her paper talks about the negative impact of poverty on children's survival and development, yet little is known about the well-being of poor Egyptian children. Al- Sharabiyya Quarter was taken as a case study, and the results indicated that children's kinship quality and their perceptions of well-being are affected by kindness, trust, joking, generosity, support, hitting, and talking.

Then it is followed by a roundtable discussion on the topic: “Statistics and Evidence for Children: From Research to Policy” managed by Dr. Luigi Peter Rango, Director of Social Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation at UNICEF Egypt. Ms. Sarah Eid, Director of the Transparency and Citizen Engagement Unit at the Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Reham Rizk, Director of the Social Planning and Development Unit at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, and Ms. Alison Fahey is Executive Director of the Jameel Poverty Lab in the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Luigi began by asking how we could factor research into any budget decision. Dr. Sarah answered by referring to the citizen's budget, which is how each of us has the right to know the many ways in which the budget affects his life. By presenting budget information in a more accessible format than most standard budget documents, Citizens' Budgets promotes a greater understanding of how public funds are managed. And it is not new, as it was issued in Egypt after the revolution, when they discovered that everyone has the right to know what is going on, in addition to participating in making such a decision. It is a form of transparency between the government and the citizen. She added that there are many sources of information including, academic research, and research conducted by international organizations such as reviewing public spending, as well as how we need to rearrange spending in the budget. Then Dr. Luigi started talking about multidimensional poverty, the new indicator under construction in Egypt. How can this indicator help in addressing poverty in Egypt? It was answered that we are building a national one as economists, because Egypt, in fact, has narrowed the measures of poverty. We have set a narrow definition to define poverty in income expenditures only, which is considered a multidimensional phenomenon. When we look at multidimensional poverty, Egypt has succeeded in reducing it but when we look at income poverty, it is not. Henceforth, we need to build a National Multidimensional Poverty Framework in Egypt in order to better visualize poverty in Egypt.

Then it was followed by the third session entitled: “The Impact of Social-Economic Factors on Children’s Well-Being,” chaired by Prof. Sherine Al-Shawarby,  in which a paper entitled: “Make the Right Real: Edutainment for Expanding the Capabilities of People with Invisible Disabilities” was discussed, prepared by Ahmed Ayoub, and then followed by another titled: “Assessing the socioeconomic and Proximate Determinants for the Loss of Children among Urban and Rural Mothers in Egypt" prepared by Mona Abdel-Hady, and the discussion and comments are carried out by: Dr. Marwa Biltagy, professor of economics, and Ms. Dalia Bayoumi, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, UNICEF Egypt. Dr. Sherine stressed that in light of the state's interest in sustainable development issues, the concern for children's issues and their well-being is a very important issue in light of the interest in the future. She also confirmed that when she saw the level of research presented, she was sure that the future of research in Egypt is fine. Dr. Shireen started the construction with Professor Ahmed Ayoub's paper. Professor Ahmed Ayoub is a lawyer who graduated from the Faculty of Law, Mansoura University and holds two diplomas on public and international investment law from Cairo University and Mansoura University. But he is also passionate about economics, as he seeks to obtain a master's degree in law and economics at the University of Hamburg, and a master's degree in economics at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. Mr. Ahmed started presenting his paper, where he said that the idea for the paper came to him from watching the Egyptian series "Khaly Balak Min Zizi". His paper simply discusses the fact that in 2018 an Egyptian disability law was passed, and this law contained for the first-time types of special needs that were previously neglected, so they must demand their rights. However, despite the issuance of this law, these rights were ignored by informal institutions, as there were restrictions and barriers that prevented responding to these rights and applying the law. Professor Ahmed took the Egyptian series “Keep in Mind from Zizi” as a case study, as it presented the problem of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. Therefore, he studied how this series affected people's awareness and the integration of people with the disorder into society, and the behavior of people in Egypt about the disorder. The results were that there was no direct and positive effect on taking their rights in the institutions, so people were made aware of this disorder, but they did not sympathize with their inclusion in the institutions. Then the second paper is entitled "Assessing the socioeconomic and proximate determinants of child loss among urban and rural mothers in Egypt" by Mona Abdel Hady, a scientific researcher at the Thunen Institute for Market Analysis and also obtained a joint master's degree from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in quantitative economic models and methods. This paper explores the socioeconomic and proximate determinants of under-five maternal mortality in urban and rural areas. Results indicate that breastfeeding, birth space, maternal age and child size are essential for the health of children under five years of age in urban and rural areas. It also indicates that a mother in rural areas suffers a greater mortality under the age of five if she does not have improved toilet services and health insurance.

The conference concluded with a word of thanks from both Luigi Peter and Dr. Asmaa Ezzat to all those who participated in presenting this conference and participating to make it appear in this way. Dr. Asmaa also expressed her happiness to take charge of this version of the conference and her enjoyment of all the research topics that were discussed. After the words of thanks, Dr. Asmaa Ezzat, before distributing the prizes for the winning researches, clarified the classification of the research papers, which are researches for master’s students and researches for faculty members and doctoral students, and that about fifty research abstracts were received and carefully selected among them to be presented at the conference. Among these research papers, the winners will be selected. Dr. Asmaa Ezzat gave way to Dr. Nisreen Selim to announce the winners who came as follows in each category: First: The Ph.D. students category won a cash prize of $2,500. The research “Climate Change and Child Malnutrition in Egypt” was won by Dr. Amira Al-Ayouti and Dr. Hala Abu Ali and Dr. Ronia Hawash. The other research is "Evaluating the social, economic and approximate determinants of child loss among mothers in urban and rural areas in Egypt" by Dr. Mona Abdelhady. The second category of master’s students received a $500 cash prize for the research of Professor Marina Hisham for her paper “Domestic Violence and Child Care: Partial Evidence in Selected Arab Countries” and the other research by Professor Ahmed Ayoub for his research “Make the Right Real: Entertaining Education to Expand the Capabilities of Persons with Invisible Disabilities.”

Finally, extending thanks and greetings to all the participants, professors, researchers, and students, hoping that this conference will come out with a general work agenda, and inspire the participants to set a special work agenda for each of them, in an unremitting effort towards a flourishing environment for childhood and adolescence in Egypt.