Child Poverty

Introducing Human Centered Design into policy-making in Nicaragua

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:41:00 +0000

“Boring...” That was my first reaction after spending the night at a ‘casa materna’ in rural Nicaragua. There wasn’t much for the other women – who had come to access the regional capital’s superior maternal health services – to do. There was a lot of sitting around. Most women were too shy to talk to one another. Others just missed their homes.

I felt guilty at my reaction. These maternal houses were, after all, superb facilities that help rural women have free pre-natal exams and deliver their babies in a safe environment. Was it unfair to talk about boredom when money is scarce? Shouldn’t these women be content to just have these services? From a Human Centered Design perspective, the answer is simply no.

At UNICEF Nicaragua, we have introduced ‘design thinking’ into policy-making. The concept invites us to look at public services as designers. To focus on the experience of service users as a departure point for improving these same services, and therefore their impact on people. So when we teamed up with the government at the Northern Autonomous Atlantic Region (RAAN) in Nicaragua to develop a regional policy for children, we seized on the opportunity to use this innovative approach to support the rights of kids in the region.

Design thinking requires empathy, so we started our work by going to the people. The work kicked off with two weeks of intense field work in 7 indigenous territories and 23 communities. Equipped with a design research framework (i.e. ethnographic and journalistic tools, photos, videos) developed by Reboot, an NY-based social enterprise specializing in governance, the team set off to capture what people really care about. We talked to more than a hundred residents of the region about their aspirations, priorities and concerns for their children. There were no pre-cooked solutions waiting to be vetted. The goal was simply to observe and understand.

“We didn’t understand the methodology at first, but it soon became dynamic, active and proactive,” confessed Fernando Pomares, Technical Advisor for the Regional Council in the RAAN. Mr. Pomares further explained that the technique allowed him to deeply understand the opinions and problems of people in a concrete way.

Making sense of this wealth of information wasn’t easy. A series of co-creation workshops and additional investigation followed to synthesize over 500 direct and indirect observations. Post-it notes and drawings covered the walls of our office. They told the stories of children, single-mothers, parents, and grandmothers, most of them from indigenous or afro-descendant backgrounds. The regional policy started to have a face, a name, a context.

To deepen our understanding of the experience of parents and children in the region, we also ran service trials. It was during the latter that I spent the night at the maternal house. The other 15 government officials also spent the week carrying heavy backpacks to simulate pregnancy, filing for child support services, registering children, attending classes in good and bad schools, participating in after-school activities - not as observers - but as actual service users, as rights holders.

“We lived with people, were in their places where things were going on,” explained Guadalupe Alvarez Kitler, Director of the Women, Children and Family Secretary of the RAAN. The important part, according to Ms. Kitler, was understanding the perspective of children and mothers, what happens during school hours, in the hospital.

The work is far from over. But thinking like a designer and a policy-maker has been a rich experience. It has brought together government officials beyond party lines, created empathy towards service users, and increased understanding of context (and what the policy can in fact deliver and what’s just wishful thinking). Most importantly, it showed us that improving the experience of services doesn’t have to be costly. Government officials in Nicaragua are already envisioning casas maternas as spas experiences by creating linkages with the hotel industry. The private sector has long understood the centrality of creating positive experiences to attract and keep loyal customers. For the public sector, happy ‘customers’ means stepping closer to fulfilling their rights. And there’s nothing boring about that.

Focal Points:

Natalia Adler, nadler@unicef.org

Rinko Kinoshita

UNICEF Nicaragua, http://en.unicef.org.ni

Lao Government and UNICEF launch “Study on Child Well-Being and Disparities in Lao PDR”

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:43:00 +0000

The Lao Government recently launched a Study highlighting its recognition of the need to focus development efforts on the poorest and most marginalized segments of society – especially for advancing the well-being of children.

The National Commission for Mothers and Children, in partnership with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, used the launch as an opportunity to stress the need for equity-focused approaches as the most practical and cost effective ways of meeting health and other Millennium Development Goals for children.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Litou Bouapao, Vice-Chair of the National Commission for Mothers and Children, drew attention to Laos’s sustained economic growth and political achievements over the past decade, but noted that the benefits had yet to reach all segments of society.

“This growth brings new opportunities to the people of the Lao PDR, including its growing population of children and young people,” Mr. Litou said in her opening remarks. “Despite our growth, our stability and countless achievements we are challenged with bringing benefits to the poorest and the most vulnerable.

Supported by UNICEF, the ‘Study on Child Well-Being and Disparities in Lao PDR’, draws attention to the fact that geographic location, ethnicity and the education level of mothers are highly dependent factors in a child’s wellbeing, indicated by issues such as the likelihood of surviving early childhood, accessing adequate healthcare, education and improved drinking water and sanitation.

The Study stresses, for example, that a child born today in the urban area is three times more likely to survive to the age of five than a child born in the rural area. Additional examples include findings showing that the percentage of undernourished children increases dramatically and steadily based on his or her mother’s level of education. The gap in sanitation facilities is even more striking. While 98 per cent of children among the wealthiest families have access to latrine, at least 93 per cent of children among the poorest households have no access to such facilities.

“We congratulate Lao PDR’s progress in socio-economic development in the recent years and efforts to improve the situation of children and mothers. We look forward to our continued collaboration in addressing inequities for the benefit of both the present and future generation,” said Ms. Julia Rees, Deputy Representative to UNICEF in Lao PDR. “Extending services to the poorest children and most impoverished communities is both right in principle and practice.”

The Study marks the first time that Laos has embarked on an analysis of poverty focused on the - multi-dimensional impacts that poverty has on children, including aspects such as health, nutrition, protection, education, and water, sanitation and hygiene.

Mr. Litou appealed to development partners, as well as central and local government leaders to work toward narrowing the inequities highlighted by the Study.

“We acknowledge the key role of the local government to take action. Strengthening the institutions and capacities to use data to re-orientate development planning and budgeting to address the needs of most vulnerable children and mothers is of critical importance. Provincial and district government play a vital role to strengthen the implementation of the socio-economic development plans that reflect priority action and greater investment in our children’s health and education, especially in the second half of the 7^th NSEDP."

For the full report click here

For the press release in Lao click here

Focal points:

Julia Rees, OIC, UNICEF Lao PDR

Mizuho Okimoto-Kaewtathip, Chief of Social Policy, UNICEF Lao PDR, mokimotokaewtathip@unicef.org

Removing fuel subsidies and scaling-up social protection in Ghana

Tue, 28 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

A number of countries around the world are faced with the increasingly high costs and regressive nature of fuel subsidies but are struggling with their reform given likely negative impacts on well-being. In Ghana, the government recently removed the majority of the subsidy on fuel and scaled up its funding to social protection, including a tripling of the budget allocation to the national cash transfer programme.

Analysis proves that subsidies on petrol are regressive, with 70% of direct benefits accruing to the wealthiest quintile on average in Africa, while less than 3% of direct benefits are received by the poorest 20% of households*. Conversely, we know that many direct social transfer programmes are far more pro-poor - Ghana's national cash transfer programme (LEAP) is one of the better targeted with 75% of its benefits reaching the poorest two quintiles.

As national debate mounted after the elections, and the preparation of the 2013 budget was underway, Ghana's new government chose to remove the majority of the subsidy on fuel (petrol and diesel in particular), thereby avoiding a cost to the budget of well over

1 billion USD in the year.

The subsidy reform was quite sudden, occurring less than two weeks before the annual budget was finalised, and no national studies on the reform's impact had been carried out. As a result, UNICEF led the core team of partners to look at the possible impact and what response might therefore be needed.

A rapid and preliminary assessment of the national household data by the World Bank, showed that although the subsidies were regressive, any increase in the cost of fuel and related purchases such as transport and food would still have an important impact on the expenditure and therefore well-being of the poorest groups. The real income loss for the poorest group following subsidy removal is around 7% - a considerable amount for people living below the poverty line. As a result, the

reform will impact on Ghana's national trajectory to reduce poverty.

UNICEF then estimated a range of different cost scenarios for scaling-up the national cash transfer programme, concluding that it should be expanded to reach around 150,000 households by the end of 2013, twice its coverage in 2012.

At the same time, we coordinated a series of high level meetings to discuss the need for a government response to the fuel subsidy reform.

The outcome was an increase in the government budget for the national cash transfer programme, from an expenditure of 4 million USD in 2012 to an allocation of 15 million USD in the 2013 budget.

However, even with a doubling of the cash transfer programme's coverage, it will still only reach less than 8% of Ghana's poorest people. Clearly, even in addition to other social protection programmes that are in operation, much remains to be done to strengthen the national social protection system and continue LEAP's expansion to protect the poorest from such shocks and persistent poverty.

Focal point: Sarah Hague

Child Poverty Insights: Using Incentives to Change How Teenagers Spend their Time

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:35:00 +0000

In the March Child Poverty Insights issue, Pamela Morris, J. Lawrence Aber, Sharon Wolf and Juliette Berg from New York University Steinhard highlight findings from New York City's Conditional Cash Transfer Program (Family Rewards Program), and how incentives linked to the program have impacted the way teenagers spend their time. The Family Rewards have increased the proportion of teenagers that spend their time predominantly in academice activities. In addition, the Family Rewards had a sizeable positive impact on parents' saving for their teenager's future education, demonstrating that the program did increase parents' investment in children's human capital. This CPI issue highlights the benefits of measuring the potential pathways by which cash transfers are thought to impact children and youth.

For the full issue click here

For all previous Child Poverty Insights issues click here

Please email your suggestions for future Insights topics and authors to: sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org

The Final Countdown: Prospects for Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Over a billion people worldwide live on less than $1.25 a day. But that number is falling. This has given credence to the idea that extreme poverty can be eliminated in a generation. A new study by Brookings researchers examines the prospects for ending extreme poverty by 2030 and the factors that will determine progress toward this goal. Below are some of the key findings:

We are at a unique point in history where there are more people in the world living right around the $1.25 mark than at any other income level. This implies that equitable growth in the developing world will result in more movement of people across the poverty line than across any other level.
Sustaining the trend rate of global poverty reduction requires that each year a new set of individuals is primed to cross the international poverty line. This will become increasingly difficult as some of the poorest of the poor struggle to make enough progress to approach the $1.25 threshold over the next twenty years.
The period from 1990 to 2030 resembles a relay race in which responsibility for leading the charge on global poverty reduction passes between China, India and sub-Saharan Africa. China has driven progress over the last twenty years, but with its poverty rate now down in the single digits, the baton is being passed to India. India has the capacity to deliver sustained progress on global poverty reduction over the next decade based on modest assumptions of equitable growth. Once India’s poverty is largely exhausted, it will be up to sub-Saharan Africa to run the final relay leg and bring the baton home. This poses a significant challenge as most of Africa’s poor people start a long way behind the poverty line.
As global poverty approaches zero, it becomes increasingly concentrated in countries where the record of and prospects for poverty reduction are weakest. Today, a third of the world’s poor live in fragile states but this share could rise to half in 2018 and nearly two-thirds in 2030.
The World Bank has recently set a goal to reduce extreme poverty around the world to under 3 percent by 2030. It is unlikely that this goal can be achieved by stronger than expected growth across the developing world, or greater income equality within each developing country, alone. Both factors are needed simultaneously.

Download the full report

Child Poverty Insights: Nutrition in Early Childhood, Insights from rural Ethiopia

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:12:00 +0000

In the first Child Poverty Insights issue of 2013, Catherine Porter, highlights recent findings on catching up from early nutritional deficits. Her findings are based on the Ethiopia Young Lives study of childhood poverty, which follows the same cohort of boys and girls born in 2001, from just after their birth.

Nutritional catch-up patterns vary substantially across socioeconomic groups in Ethiopia, even small improvements in living standards can increase a child’s chances of catching up from stunting or malnutrition in the early years. In particular, investments in sanitation and water appear to have large payoffs. Services that improve the child’s environment have complementary (and possibly separate) impacts on nutritional intake in terms of ability to catch up from nutritional shocks at an early age, for example through reduced infections and illnesses.

Average catch-up growth in height-for-age is almost perfect among children in relatively better-off households, who are much less likely to be stunted at the age of five. On the contrary, among the poorer children, relative height is much more persistent, and they are more likely to remain stunted at five. The opportunity for influencing nutritional achievement is short; the window of opportunity to catch up appears to close as early as the age of five.

For the full issue click here

For all previous Child Poverty Insights issues click here

Please email your suggestions for future Insights topics and authors to: sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org

Breaking the cycle of poverty - cash transfer programme in Kenya

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:22:00 +0000

A UNICEF-supported cash transfer programme is helping young Kenyans break the cycle of poverty, see this short video explaining the programme

Child Poverty Insights: BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:21:00 +0000

In the November Child Poverty Insights issue, Farzana Kashfi, Santhosh Ramdoss and Scott MacMillan highlight BRAC's Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program, which offers hundreds of thousands of adolescent girls the opportunity for a better life through mentorship, life skills training and microfinance. Targeting girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania, Afghanistan, South Sudan and, most recently, Haiti and Sierra Leone, it has been rigorously tested and shown to have positive impacts.

To view this issue click here
To view all previous Child Poverty Insights issues click here
For suggestions on future Child Poverty Insights issues sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org

Child Poverty in Namibia

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:32:00 +0000

The report Child Poverty in Namibia will be launched today by the Namibia Statistics Agency. It is the first child-centred analysis of the Namibian Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES). The report provides an overview of the poverty trends since the last NHIES, before analysing the profile of child poverty, multiple deprivation and the impact of social grants on child poverty rates. It also provides a simulation of the impact of an expansion of child welfare grants from mostly orphans to the broader group of poor and vulnerable children, with costing of such an expansion for different scenarios, including a universal child welfare grant. Expanding the child welfare grants to cover all poor children would dramatically reduce child poverty from 34% to 13% and extreme child poverty from 18% to 3%.

For the full report, click here
Focal point: Petra Hoelscher, UNICEF Namibia

www.nsa.org.na

Child Poverty Insights

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 18:37:00 +0000

We hope that you already read and use Child Poverty Insights (CPI) - a UNICEF online publication for sharing insights, experiences and innovative developments on issues of child poverty, deprivation and inequity. Since we launched the series in August 2009, we have published 21 Insights on a variety of topics, and these have been well-received by thousands of people in over 150 countries. Starting from April 2012, each CPI now responds one of three important areas of child poverty and inequity, namely:

Evidence: where high quality research results that focus on children’s inequity issues are reported
Think Pieces: where new approaches to measuring or approaching child poverty and inequity are introduced
Practice: where real-world programmes are discussed to show examples of ‘best practice’ in responding to child poverty and inequity

Our refocus is one to be more responsive to suggestions from those working on child poverty. We hope that this approach can allow a wider circulation as well as increased levels of contributions from those working in applied research, NGOs and in the field. We especially encourage those working in the field to share suggestions with us and our new ‘Practice’ theme will be specifically aimed to share lessons on what works across practitioners and analysts among the readership of CPI and on the Child Poverty Network.

Please send suggestions for topics and authors to: sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org
All previous issues of Child Poverty Insights can be found here
Please find the Child Poverty Insights editorial guidelines here

We look forward to another year of insightful, relevant and practical Child Poverty Insights, and hope these pieces will be useful to you.

The Child Poverty Insights Team

Martin C. Evans

Solrun Engilbertsdottir

UNICEF Division for Policy and Strategy, New York HQ

"Global Child Poverty & Well-Being"

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:19:00 +0000

Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. The recently released book “Global Child Poverty and Well-Being: Measurement, Concepts, Policy and Action” brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. It examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional- and national-level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle-income and poor countries. The book's ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world's great on-going tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.

For information on the launch of the book in New York click here and to get a copy of the book click here

The State of the World's Children 2012 Report

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:11:00 +0000

State of the World's Children 2012

This year's UNICEF flagship report, the State of the World's Children, focuses on the situation of children growing up in urban situations.

"The experience of childhood is increasingly urban. Over half the world’s people – including more than a billion children – now live in cities and towns.

While cities have long been associated with employment, development and economic growth, hundreds of millions of children in the world’s urban areas are growing up amid scarcity and deprivation.

Progress is possible. The State of the World’s Children 2012 presents the hardships these children face as violations of their rights as well as impediments to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. The report examines major phenomena shaping the lives of children in urban settings, including migration, economic shocks and acute disaster risk.The State of the World’s Children 2012 provides examples of efforts to improve the urban realities that children confront and identifies broad policy actions that should be included in any strategy to reach excluded children and foster equity in urban settings riven by disparity."

For the full report and related material visit: http://www.unicef.org/sowc2012/

Qualitative research in child poverty/deprivation analysis

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Qualitative research provides additional valuable information and comprehension to data collected through quantitative methods, it can reveal hidden problems that quantitative research may not expose. The benefits of qualitative research stem from its ability to reach greater depths of understanding by capturing children‘s feelings, attitudes and perspectives on various aspects of their lives and the political-economic contexts that shape their experiences of poverty. Although the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities guide strongly encourages countries undertaking child poverty/deprivation analysis to complement their statistical analysis with qualitative research, it does not provide guidance regarding how to conduct such research. This has been left to the country teams to decide upon.

Click here for an overview of how the Global Study country teams have provided extremely innovative and insightful ways for conducting qualitative research, to complement their statistical analysis of child poverty/deprivation

Sharpening the equity focus: selected innovations and lessons learned 2009-2010

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:51:00 +0000

The latest UNICEF External compendium Sharpening the equity focus: Selected innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF-assisted programmes 2009-2010 highlights how advocacy work around child poverty and disparities in China led to the incorporation of child poverty as a major issue to address in the 10 year National Rural Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2011-2020. This experience highlights a top-down and bottom-up approach to policy making, where both efforts reinforce each other. UNICEF continues further strengthening of national institutions to ensure successful implementation of the new rural poverty reduction policies.

To read more on the China case and for the full compendium click here

New Global Study Country & Regional Reports

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:09:00 +0000

The Global Study on Child Poverty & Disparities is fast progressing with 25 final country reports and 2 regional reports.

The East Asia and the Pacific Study on Child Poverty is the second regional report to be completed.

This study is the first measurement of multidimensional child poverty at the regional level in East Asia and the Pacific. It is based on seven countries in the region: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. The study results show that, of the 93 million children who live in these seven countries, approximately 54% experience poverty, as measured by deprivation of basic needs. In 2006, approximately 36% of children suffered severe deprivation in at least one of the seven dimensions identified as relevant for child poverty (food, water, shelter, sanitation, health, education and information) and approximately 14% suffered from severe deprivation in multiple dimensions. In the group of countries with the highest rates of child poverty (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Mongolia), approximately 83% of children were severely deprived in at least one dimension.

This study also highlights existing disparities within countries in the region. For example, in Viet Nam, children from ethnic minority groups are 11 times more likely to suffer from multiple severe deprivations than children from ethnic majority groups – an unfortunate pattern found in many other countries. Child poverty was 30 per cent higher in rural Cambodia than in urban areas, 60 per cent higher in rural Thailand and 130 per cent higher in rural Philippines.

To access the full report and other by-products, advocacy related materials, press releases and more please click here.

Additionally, 2 new Global Study country reports have been finalized:

Nepal (English)

Nepal, with an annual GDP per capita income of US$367, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Two thirds of Nepal’s children are severely deprived and just under forty per cent live in absolute poverty. Children from large households, illiterate families, disadvantaged and Dalit households are likely to be the poorest. Additionally, child poverty is three times higher in rural households than in urban households. Two in every five children experience severe deprivation of at least two basic human needs. Deprivations of food and sanitation services occur most frequently, followed by deprivations of water and information services. Malnutrition is a severe problem; with half of Nepal’s children under the age of five stunted and over two thirds underweight. Measured by the absence of a toilet of any kind, over half of Nepal’s children (55.7% or 6.4 million) defecate in open spaces with obvious implications for the spread of diseases. Nepal has one of the highest early childhood mortality rates in the region. Leading causes of child mortality includes diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection, and malaria. A large proportion of Nepal’s children have inadequate access to schooling and 10% of children do not attend school at all.

To access the full report and other by-products, advocacy related materials, press releases and more please click here.

Mozambique (English and Portuguese)

The 2010 Study on Child Poverty and Disparities in Mozambique provides an opportunity to take stock of the progress made towards the realisation of the rights of the country’s ten million children since the 2006 Childhood Poverty Study: A Situation and Trends Analysis, and to assess the immense challenges that remain for the coming years. According to the 2008/2009 Household Budget Survey, 55 per cent of Mozambicans are living below the national poverty line of 18.4 Meticais ($US 0.50) per day. Using a deprivations-based approach the proportion of children living in absolute poverty in Mozambique fell from 59 per cent in 2003 to 48 per cent in 2008. Significant disparities exist in relation to provincial deprivations-based poverty rates. The proportion of children experiencing two or more severe deprivations was highest in Zambezia province in both 2003 and 2008 (80 and 64 per cent respectively). Maputo City has the lowest levels of absolute child poverty, with only 4 per cent of children experiencing two or more severe deprivations.

To access the full report and other by-products, advocacy related materials, press releases and more please click here

To read all the final reports, click here.

Latest Publications & Research on Child Poverty

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:07:00 +0000

There are a number of publications and peer-reviewed research papers on global child poverty published in the last few months.

Poverty and Gender Inequalities: Evidence from Young Lives

(Pells, K. Young Lives Policy Brief, Number 3; September 2011.)

Analysis of Young Lives data offers a more nuanced picture of gender dynamics than that which is often presented in international policy debates, showing inequalities affecting both boys and girls at different ages through intra-household dynamics, sociocultural context and economic pressures.

To download click here

Snakes and Ladders, Buffers and Passports: Rethinking Poverty, Vulnerability and Wellbeing

(Sumner, A. and Mallett, R; IPC-IG Working Paper #83; August 2011.)

Much research to date has tended to view vulnerability by discipline or sector, yet individuals and households experience multiple, interacting and sometimes compound vulnerabilities. Cross-disciplinary thinking is emerging as multi-dimensional vulnerability is likely to become an increasingly important concept if the outlook over the next 15 to 25 years is one of multiple, interacting and compound stressors and crises, a result of the “perfect-s torm” or “long-crisis” thesis of the interaction of demographics, climate change and food and energy prices. A realigned analytical lens is thus useful to bring together the various intellectual strands involved in multi-dimensional vulnerability analysis. In light of the above, this paper reviews the literature on vulnerability and asks what a “three-dimensional human wellbeing” approach—a complement to more traditional ways of understanding poverty—might contribute to the analysis of vulnerability.

To download click here.

Multidimensional Indices of Achievements and Poverty: What Do We Gain and What Do We Lose?

(Lustig, N.; Center for Global Development Working Paper #262; August 2011)

Poverty and well-being are multidimensional. Nobody questions that deprivations and achievements go beyond income. There is, however, sharp disagreement on whether the various dimensions of poverty and well-being can be aggregated into a single, multidimensional index in a meaningful way. Is aggregating dimensions of poverty and well-being useful? Is it sensible? Here CGD non-resident fellow Nora Lustig summarizes and contrasts three key papers that respond to these questions in strikingly different ways. At the bottom of the discussion is a fundamental disagreement on the “legitimacy” of the weights used to aggregate dimensions of well-being. Future research will need to focus on how to identify weights in ways that are consistent 1) with welfare economics and 2) with theories of justice. Will we have to choose between the two?

To download click here.

Macroeconomic Policy for Growth and Poverty Reduction: An Application to Post-Conflict and Resource-Rich Countries

(Hailu, D. and Weeks, J; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Working Paper #108, ST/ESA/2011/DWP/108; July 2011)

A fundamental shift in macroeconomic policy thinking is taking place. This shift opens a space for implementing policies that promote growth and reduce poverty in developing countries. In this paper, policies for post-conflict and resource-rich economies are outlined. Fiscal policy would focus on revenue mobilization, scaling-up public investment, and preventing over-heating. Monetary policies would revive the financial sector, prevent inflationary pressures and stimulate private sector investment. Exchange rate policies should focus on achieving slow depreciation and maintaining international competitiveness. These policies should not be considered in isolation from each other, but in coordination.

To download click here.

Two Trends in Global Poverty

(Gertz, G. and Chandy, L; Global Economy and Development at Brookings; May 2011)

We are living through a period of rapid global poverty reduction. According to recent estimates, high, sustained growth across most of the developing world allowed nearly half a billion people to escape $1.25-a-day poverty between 2005 and 2010. Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period. While the overall prevalence of poverty is in retreat, the global poverty landscape is changing. This transformation is captured by two distinct trends: poor people are increasingly found in middle-income countries and in fragile states. Both trends and their intersection present important new questions for how the international community tackles global poverty reduction.

To download click here.

Child Poverty Insights 17 - Children in Urban Poverty: Can They Get More than Small Change?

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:06:00 +0000

In this issue of the Child Poverty Insights, Sheridan Bartlett from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) highlights the plight of children living in urban poverty. It’s widely recognized that the world is more than half urban, less widely acknowledged is the catastrophic extent of urban poverty or its implications for hundreds of millions of children. We are used to thinking of urban children as being better off than rural children in every way – better fed, better educated, with better access to health care and a better chance of succeeding in life. For many children, this is true. But for growing numbers, the so called “urban advantage” is a myth. Children growing up in urban poverty often remain invisible, not only uncounted but frequently unreached by any basic services: living without secure tenure; heavily exposed to toxics and pollutants; among the groups most at risk from disasters and the direct and indirect impacts of climate change; and, confined to small overcrowded homes with little opportunity for exploration or physical activity. It is crucial that policymakers understand that poverty reduction approaches developed to tackle rural poverty will not necessarily work in urban settings, as the nature of urban poverty is different from that of rural poverty.

All previous issues of Insights can be found here.

Knowledge for Action: Emerging experiences in child-focused Social and Economic Policy, Volume 2

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:28:00 +0000

In order to improve knowledge sharing around child-focused social and economic policy, UNICEF is investing in documenting and sharing country experiences in this area. This compendium features 18 recent innovations and lessons learned that illustrate the range of UNICEF's work on child-focused social and economic policy. These cases highlight UNICEF’s and its partners’ experience in making policy work a core strategy for reaching the most deprived.

The cases highlighted in this publication are highly diverse examples - from design and impact analysis of a cash transfer programme in Senegal to development of an equity-focused child-centred methodology for situation analysis in Iraq; making visible the impact of the economic crisis on children in Mexico; ex-ante analysis of the impact of a proposed tax change in Serbia; shaping a child sensitive National Social Protection Strategy in Cambodia; and to scaling up of the social protection system in Mozambique, among others.

You can find a copy here. To order a hard copy or for any other comments or questions regarding innovations, lessons learned and good practices, write to us at lessonslearned@unicef.org.

Focal Points: Neha Karkara, Rinko Kinoshita and Xavier R Sire

Child Poverty Insights 16 - Child poverty in the EU: The breadth of poverty and cumulative deprivation

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Keetie Roelen's (IDS) and Geranda Notten's (University of Ottawa) recent work on multidimensional child poverty in the European Union is an attempt to add to the academic and policy debate around child poverty in the region, its measurement and the use of indicators to inform policy. No studies have considered the extent to which children experience multiple deprivations at the same and can be considered 'cumulatively deprived.' In their work, they sought to address questions around those patterns overlap and the 'breadth' of poverty, as well as the combination of information in measures of cumulative deprivation. Among other things, three facts become clear from this work:

- Indicators of monetary poverty and multidimensional poverty cannot serve as a proxy for one another;
- There are risk factors that increase a child's likelihood to be poor or deprived;
- Multidimensional poverty measures enables policy makers to identify the most vulnerable children and design holistic anti-poverty policies.

The authors discuss some of this work on our latest Child Poverty Insights, entitled: "Child poverty in the EU: The breadth of poverty and cumulative deprivation." You can find this issue here. All previous issues of Insights can be found here.

Peer reviews of child poverty study reports

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:04:00 +0000

Countries participating in the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities have the option of submitting their draft reports for peer review prior to being published, and to date 30 country reports have been reviewed. The peer reviews are supervised by the Global Study headquarters team in the Social Policy and Economic Analysis Unit, in collaboration with some of the most prominent academicians and researchers that work in the area of child poverty.

For more information on the peer review process and highlights from former peer reviews please click here

Countries that are interested in having their reports, policy and statistical templates reviewed, please contact Solrun Engilbertsdottir – sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org

Knowledge for Action - Morocco's multidimensional approach to child poverty

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:13:00 +0000

UNICEF's publication Knowledge for Action: Emerging experiences in child-focused Social and Economic Policy, Selected Innovations and Lessons Learned from UNICEF programmes features recent innovations and lessons learned from UNICEF's work on child-focused social and economic policy. Among those cases highlighted is Morocco’s effort to institutionalize a multidimensional approach to child poverty measurement, Morrocco is one of the 53 countries participating in the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities.

Focal points: Neha Karkara and Xavier R. Sire

Our tragic loss in Nigeria - Mr. Johnson Awotunde

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:56:00 +0000

The recent tragic attack on UN Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria has deeply impacted us all at UNICEF. Amongst the 23 people killed was Mr. Johnson Awotunde, who was the focal point for the Child Poverty and Disparities Study in Nigeria. His efforts and commitment were crucial to the success of the Study. Mr. Awotunde was with UNICEF for eleven years as a specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation and his work was critical for the production, with the government, of the best facts and statistics on the state of children. These are used widely by aid professionals as they assess need and decide where to place resources. Mr. Awotunde made unique contributions to UNICEF’s work to save and enhance children’s lives in Nigeria. He will be deeply missed. Our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Child Poverty Insights 15 - The Changing State of Global Poverty

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:53:00 +0000

In this latest issue of Child Poverty Insights, authors Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz, from the Brookings Institution, discuss new trends on global poverty.

They estimate that between 2005 and 2010, the total number of poor people around the world fell by nearly half a billion people to under 900 million. Whereas it took 25 years to reduce poverty by half a billion people up to 2005, the same feat was likely achieved in the six years between then and now. They observe that the global poverty landscape is quickly being redrawn. Between 2005 and 2015, Asia’s share of global poverty is expected to fall from two-thirds to one-third, while Africa’s share more than doubles from 28 to 60 percent. With the graduation of some of the world’s biggest developing countries into middle income-country (MIC) status, poverty is no longer concentrated in low-income countries (LIC).

They discuss the fact that poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict-afflicted states. Finally, they discuss how these trends affect UNICEF and others committed to improving the wellbeing of children across the developing world.

You can find this and all other issues of UNICEF's Child Poverty Insights here.

Child Poverty Insights 14 - A new look at an old problem: Why do so many poor children miss out on essential immunizations?

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:28:00 +0000

In the latest issue of Child Poverty Insights (June 2011), MIT J-PAL founders and directors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo draw on their new book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty and focus on one particular question that is central to UNICEF's mission. Immunization is recognized as one of the most effective and most cost effective ways to save life. And yet, according to the World Health Organization every year, 27 million children do not receive the essential vaccinations that are part of the Expanded Programme on Immunization. Given the well-established benefits, and the resources that individual countries and the international community devote to this problem, why do so many poor children miss out on essential immunizations?

This issue of Child Poverty Insights can be downloaded in English, French and Spanish. All other Child Poverty Insights can be found here.

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Child Poverty

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:57:00 +0000

Using evidence from UNICEF’s ongoing Global Study on Child Poverty in Disparities, this Brief illustrates the importance of looking beyond traditional methods of measuring poverty based on income or consumption levels, and emphasizes the importance of seeking out the multidimensional face of child poverty. This approach further recognizes that the method used in depicting child poverty is crucial to the policy design and implementation of interventions that address children’s needs, especially among the most deprived.