Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities

Qualitative research in child poverty/deprivation analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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?

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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?

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — 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.

Child Poverty Insights 13 - Combating Poverty and Inequality

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:05:00 +0000

In this month’s Child Poverty Insights, Sarah Cook , Director, United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD) highlights some of the main messages from the UNRISD Report of the same title.

Cook discusses some of the factors that account for the persistence of poverty and inequality, and the reasons why some countries have been more successful than others in reducing poverty and inequality. She states that poverty and inequality are not mutually exclusive, hence they cannot be dealt with in isolation to each other. In fact, she emphasizes the importance of reducing inequality for poverty reduction. Based on the report, she puts forth some recommended strategies for socially inclusive structural changes that generate employment, social policies emphasizing universal rights and social cohesion, and political arrangements that are sensitive to the needs of the poor population. She also discusses how social policy can impact poverty and inequality in low-income countries, and especially child poverty. Finally she talks about why it is essential to take politics and power relations into account in order to reduce poverty and inequality.

This issue of Child Poverty Insights is available for download in English, French and Spanish.

Latest Publications & Research on Child Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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

Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries
(Alkire, S. & Santos, M.E; Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative; Working Paper #38, July 2010.)

This paper presents a new Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 104 developing countries. It is the first time multidimensional poverty is estimated using micro datasets (household surveys) for such a large number of countries which cover about 78 percent of the world´s population. The MPI has the mathematical structure of one of the Alkire and Foster poverty multidimensional measures and it is composed of ten indicators corresponding to same three dimensions as the Human Development Index: Education, Health and Standard of Living. The MPI captures a set of direct deprivations that batter a person at the same time. This tool could be used to target the poorest, track the Millennium Development Goals, and design policies that directly address the interlocking deprivations poor people experience. This paper presents the methodology and components in the MPI, describes main results, and shares basic robustness tests.
To download, click here.

Child Welfare in Developing Countries

(Cockburn, J. and Kabubo-Mariara, J. eds; International Development Research Centre; 2010)
Child poverty is of urgent concern, yet understudied. This introduction outlines the importance of this issue before providing an outline of the papers included in this book. A first set of papers pushes traditional income-based poverty analysis to focus on the issue of identification and measurement of child poverty in a multidimensional framework. The second set of papers evaluate the impact of selected policy interventions on child welfare in developing countries using a variety of new techniques.

For a more detailed list of publications and papers, click here.

Kazakhstan Joins the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:13:00 +0000

A study on child well-being will be conducted in Kazakhstan by UNICEF in partnership with the Academy of Public Administration under the Kazakh President. The study is part of UNICEF's Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities, and will be the first to provide an up-to-date comprehensive picture of the situation of children and youth in the country. The study will focus on key dimensions of child well-being adapted from existing frameworks to fit the specific country and developmental contexts.

To learn more, click here.

Child Poverty, Policy, and Evidence: Mainstreaming Children in International Development

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:20:00 +0000

In the most recent Child Poverty Insight, Nicola Jones (Overseas Development Institute) and Andy Sumner (Institute of Development Studies) discuss their new book. It is focused on how children's visibility, voice, and vision in ideas, networks, and political institutions can be mainstreamed in development research and policy. They provide a new approach to conceptualising child poverty, with a 3D child well-being approach: it examines what a child has, what a child can do with what he/she has, and how a child thinks about what he/she has an can do. They discuss how this approach can contribute to a better understanding of child poverty, and how this approach can catalyse change in the policy arena.

Download this Child Poverty Insight in English, French and Spanish.

European Parliament Alliance for Children

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Children make up a third of the world's population, yet are seldom prioritized by the world's politicians. Additionally. approximately 20% of children in Europe live in poverty and lack access to basic rights. To combat these problems, and make children a priority in all EU policies, the Parliament constituted the Alliance for Children.

The alliance is an informal, dynamic, cross-party and cross-committee group with the goal of raising the profile of children's issues. The alliance will serve to mainstream children's rights into the work of the parliament both within and beyond the European Union.

The initiative was launched by the European Parliament, in partnership with UNICEF and an alliance of international NGOs, including Save the Children, Plan International, EuroChild and World Vision. The commitments of the parliament will include basing all work on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and at least one action on children per parliamentary session.

To learn more, click here.

A new E-learning Programme Focusing on Socio-Economic Policies for Child Rights with Equity

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:21:00 +0000

This free, self-paced, online course is available to all UNICEF staff and development partners at UN agencies, governments, universities and civil society organizations.

Course Overview:
This innovative curriculum is a foundational course on economic and social policies to promote equity and child rights. The course is split into modules which include: a human-rights based approach to development; policies to reduce poverty and ensure child rights; multidimensional child poverty; public finance and social budgeting; social protection; children and migration; children and climate change; and advocacy to influence policy for children.

The course is centered in evidence-based practice with the goal of enhancing the theoretical understanding of all professionals on public policy and development issues, and to strengthen their ability to apply this knowledge in the development of programmes and policies. Furthermore, the course is designed in the context of the current and rapidly changing environment, including the economic crisis. UNICEF partnered with the Economic Research Foundation (ERF) to develop this programme.

Course Duration: It is self directed and can be completed at your own pace.

Registration: Offered free of charge, to ensure maximum outreach.

Certificate: After all the modules, a test can be taken. A certificate will be mailed to you if on successful completion of the test.

For more information, or to register, click here.

NEW Global Study Country & Regional Reports

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

The Global Study on Child Poverty & Disparities is fast progressing with 23 final country reports and 1 regional report.

The Latin America & the Caribbean Study on Child Poverty is the first regional report to be completed.

This study represents the first measurement of multidimensional child poverty at the regional level in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study results show that approximately 45% of the population under 18 live in poverty. In 2007, approximately18% of children lived in extreme poverty, where they are severely deprived of one or more basic needs. The realities of children in the region are very heterogeneous between countries. In countries with the highest rates of child poverty almost 41% of children live in extreme poverty, where as for other countries in the region, just under 14% of children live in extreme poverty. Furthermore, across the region 1 in 3 indigenous and afro-descendant children live in extreme poverty and 9 in 10 rural indigenous children.

To access the full report and other by-products, click here.

Additionally, 3 new Global Study country reports have been finalized:

Bolivia

69% of the population aged 0-17, that is 2.9 million children and adolescents, are income poor in Bolivia. The study shows that deprivations associated with the home are highest, with 39.7% of children experiencing housing deprivation, 29.2% are deprived of adequate sanitation, and 14.4% of safe water. Additionally, there exist significant disparities within the country, particularly between rural and urban areas: 90.5% of children and adolescents in rural areas are in poverty, when utilizing a multidimensional measure. Additionally, children from indigenous backgrounds are disproportionately affected.

To access the full report (Spanish), policy recommendations and other by-products, click here.

Nigeria

The Nigerian Child Poverty Study reveals that 79% of children are deprived in at least 1 of the 7 aspects considered. Water deprivation is the most common form experienced by children, and water and shelter deprivation the most frequent pair of deprivations. Additionally, 45% of boys and 40% of girls are severely food deprived, and 70% of all children are not registered at birth. There exist significant disparities within the country, particularly between rural and urban areas.

To access the full report, policy recommendations and other by-products, click here.

Uzbekistan

The report finds that in 2007, 5.9 million people, who comprise 26.3% of the population, live in poverty. Disparities in the prevalence of poverty exist, with 70% of poor families living in rural areas and families with 3 or more children being at greater risk of poor families living in rural areas and families with 3 or more children being at greater risk of poverty. The study notes that 3/4 of children are exposed to deprivation by at least one characteristic. Furthermore, every fifth child has no complete set of winter clothes of footwear, 39% of children are deprived of adequate housing, and 22% are deprived of access to health services.

To access the full report, policy recommendations and other by-products, click here.

To read all 24 of the final reports, click here.

Escaping Poverty Traps - Children and Chronic Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

In this issue of the Child Poverty Insights, Caroline Harper (Associate Director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and Head of the Social Development Programme, ODI), Hanna Alder (Freelance Research Assistant), and Paola Preznieto (Research Fellow, ODI) discuss: the importance of chronic poverty in development; what the drivers of chronic poverty are; the disproportionate effect of chronic poverty on children; and they provide key policy recommendations to address chronic poverty, particularly chronic child poverty.

Find this and previous issues of Child Poverty Insights, available for download in English, French and Spanish, here.

Qualitative Studies within Global Study Country Reports

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:29:00 +0000

" Poverty is to lose your parents, food and water, education and health services"
Child, Age 16, Port Said Governate, Egypt.

Qualitative research can serve as an important tool in capturing children's own experiences in poverty, and the perceptions of children and their families on poverty in the local context. This research can be used either to provide supporting evidence and detail to quantitative research, or can contribute to a mixed methods analysis. Additionally, qualitative results in the form of quotes and case studies can often be strong sources of advocacy.

The following countries included an element of qualitative research into the Global Study final and draft reports:
Final Reports:

Egypt	Kosovo	Philippines
Tanzania	Uzbekistan

Draft Reports

Afghanistan	Cameroon	Sierra Leone
Togo	Vietnam	Yemen

To read more about the qualitative research methods used, scope of each study, and main findings, click here.

The State of the World’s Children 2011 – Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:22:00 +0000

The international community has made tremendous gains in improving the health and well-being of children under 10, but less progress has been made in reaching older children. Millions lack basic health care, quality education, adequate protection and opportunities for meaningful participation to shape their own lives. Without this support and these opportunities, adolescents will be less equipped to deal with the great challenges of our time, including climate change, high youth unemployment and humanitarian crises.

With the great majority (88%) of the world's 1.2 billion adolescents living in developing countries, investing in their education and training could break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality. Investing in adolescents will provide adolescents with the skills, capacities and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in life as global citizens.

The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An age of opportunity
examines the challenges facing the world’s adolescents, and contains perspectives of young people and adults on pressing issues, policy recommendations, as well as statistical tables on basic indicators and on adolescents and equity, with the latest available data for 196 countries and territories.

View the Multimedia Report here.

Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:46:00 +0000

Measuring Poverty - The State of the Art
This major conference examined the current state of the art of poverty measurement around the world. Leading researchers from all parts of the globe presented the latest advances in poverty measurement methodology used and its application for policy purposes in their own countries and regions.

For more information, click here.
To read speaker bios and download presentations, click here.

Multidimensional Poverty in Senegal

noreply@blogger.com (Send us an e-mail:) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:57:00 +0000

Following the launch of the Child Poverty Study report in Senegal, partnerships with the University Cheik Anta Diop and Maastricht University, were strengthened to generate further studies on multidimensional poverty featured below:

Multidimensional Poverty in Senegal: An Assessment of Deprivation Patterns and Poverty Trends in 2008, Bluhm et al. (2010).
This paper examines static multidimensional poverty in Senegal in 2008 using an axiomatic approach to define a multidimensional poverty index. The four predetermined dimensions for which indicators are available are: education, water/sanitation, shelter, and assets. The resulting poverty headcount is 64.57% of the sampled population. Large regional differences exist in the incidence of poverty, as well as differences between rural and urban areas. Age groups, gender, household size and relative share of children are all found to be household characteristics that describe substantial variations in the poverty headcount.

To access the full paper, click here.

Les Dynamiques de la Pauvreté au Sénégal: Pauvreté Chronique, Pauvreté Transitoire et Vulnerabilities (The Poverty Dynamics in Senegal: Chronic Poverty, Transitory Poverty and Vulnerabilities), Fall et al. (2010).
This paper measures the extent of chronic poverty in Senegal, while simultaneously identifying the profile of the chronically poor. It also analyzes the transmission, exit and retention factors of chronic poverty, and proposes approaches to better account for chronic poverty in social protection and poverty reduction programs. Results indicate that chronic poverty is widely prevalent in Senegal, and beyond the period of youth the opportunities to exit from chronic poverty are limited, and decrease with age. Furthermore, it is largely a rural phenomenon and disproportionately affects people with lack of education, 84%. The low mobility in poverty is the main cause of its intergenerational transmission, as well as the transfer deficit of resources and opportunities. The study emphasizes the need to promote upward social mobility, through inclusive growth, human capital development, and a focus of youth development.

To access the full paper (French), click here.

Policy Brief on the Dynamics of Poverty in Senegal.
To access in English, click here.
To access in French, click here.