Implementing the concept of sustainable development in Russia : developing the childhood infrastructure

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to find the relevant differentiation of quality and accessibility assessments for the services provided by infrastructure institutions, and satisfaction with living environment by families of different types from urban and rural areas of Russia. To obtain an objective picture and evaluate the implementation of the Concept of Sustainable Development in Russia consistent with the interests of families with children, one should consider not only the official statistics, but also the results of sample surveys of target groups. Integrating information from different sources allows obtaining a more reliable and completing assessment of the development of social infrastructure for families with children. The social infrastructure should be developed according to the needs and wishes of the citizens. The findings of the study are based on an analysis of official statistics for the period of 2005-2014 and the results of the representative sample study “Comprehensive monitoring of the population’s living conditions”. To examine the study assumptions, relevant statistical analysis methods have been applied the differences in distribution of answers between urban and rural families have been analyzed using the Pearson’s coefficient. This study has proven that the estimates given by respondents living in urban and rural areas are much less different from the statistics for the types of relevant settlements. Reducing the number of institutions that provide families that have children with healthcare, education and leisure services has not shown negative assessments of respondents yet, but the social infrastructure should be developed in accordance with the needs and wishes of the citizens.