Child poverty in high-income countries

Global Coalition to End Child Poverty

On 4 September, a Global Coalition to End Child Poverty webinar highlighted that over 69 million children in 40 of the world’s wealthiest countries live in poverty. The event underlined that poverty for children goes beyond financial constraints, impacting their access to basic needs like heating, nutritious food, and clothing. Effective policies, such as cash transfers to families, were discussed as immediate tools to combat child poverty, alongside the need for policies ensuring access to basic services, including examples from Poland and the US. Recordings and presentations from the event are available on the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty website.

Symposium on child poverty and sustainable development

African Child Policy Forum

Nearly half of Africa’s population is under 18, presenting a significant opportunity for sustainable development if supported properly. However, a report by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) reveals that over 53 per cent of Africa’s children live in multidimensional poverty, highlighting a lack of political commitment to children’s rights. To address this, African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) are organizing a high-level event in Ethiopia, bringing together experts to discuss and promote action against child poverty in Africa and beyond.

The pressing problem of child poverty and poor health

Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Rita Hamad, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences and director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research (SPHERE) Center, shared her thoughts on how child poverty drives poor health, recent policies that have shown significant promise in alleviating the challenge, and opportunities to lift more children out of poverty. 

Episode #38: Poverty is expensive – Fair by Design

Poverty Unpacked podcast

When you have less to spend, life costs more. In this episode of the Poverty Unpacked podcast, Maria Booker from the campaign Fair by Design reveals the scale and impact of poverty premiums and how it affects one in four families in the UK.

Child indicators for MPIs

OPHI

Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs) highlight the multiple deprivations faced by households, but gaps in survey data, especially for children’s deprivations, remain a challenge. Recently, OPHI curated a set of validated child indicators for MPI design in middle and high-income countries, based on a thorough review of existing surveys. 

DAY Project in Naples sets a powerful precedent for expanding child participation across Europe

Eurochild

2,000 children and young people from nine schools in three districts of Naples with poor social and economic indicators got together to ask for changes in their municipalities.

Child poverty reports

To eradicate child poverty, it’s essential to measure it and understand the circumstances of children affected by it. Explore the collection of national child poverty analyses on the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty website. Here are some of the most recent reports: 

• Tackling child poverty and enhancing child sensitive social protection in Eswatini
• Multidimensional Poverty Index for Children and Adolescents of the Republic of Panama (in Spanish)
• Child poverty report 2023: Based on living conditions monitoring survey 2022 data, Zambia

Investing in Children: The Impact of EU Tax and Benefit Systems on Child Poverty and Inequality

European Commission

The EU has committed to reducing the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 5 million by 2030. A recent study looked at how cash support for children in the EU-27 from 2019-2022 has impacted child poverty and inequality. Using the EUROMOD model, the study found that the amount of support varies widely between countries, with Ireland providing 3.2 per cent of GDP per capita in Ireland to 12 per cent in Austria 12. This support has helped reduce child at-risk-of-poverty rates, ranging from 4 percentage points in Portugal to 16 in Slovakia.

Improving the lives of young people in the Global South

Young Lives

New Young Lives Director, Marta Favara, sets out new vision in this blog, including laying the foundations for a new YL Research Hub on Climate Change and Environmental Shocks. The Hub will generate, for the first-time, important policy-relevant evidence on the long-term effects of shocks on human development across the life-course, and across two generations of children and young adults growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. This will include the impacts of extreme weather shocks experienced throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence, such as droughts, flooding, and rising temperatures, as well as increasing air pollution.

Children do care: Novel findings from Colombia and Mexico

In Latin America, where social protection systems are weak and early childhood education services have limited coverage, the burden of care often falls heavily on families. This situation not only impacts women's labor trajectories but also affects children who take on caregiving roles, an understudied phenomenon with potential long-term consequences. This study examines the caregiving dynamics of children aged 12 to 18 in Colombia and Mexico, using recent time-use surveys to analyze their contribution to unpaid family care and its potential consequences.