Child Poverty and Inequality

299 Pages·2012·3.31 MB·English

by  Isabel Ortiz

C
The 21st century starts with Child Poverty
h
vast asymmetries for children
in terms of income, access to i
l
food, water, health, educa- d
tion, housing, or employment and Inequality
P
for their families. Half of the
world’s children are below o
the poverty line of $2 a day v
and suffer from multiple de-
e New Perspectives
privations and violations to
r
basic human rights. More t
y
than 22,000 children die each
day, and most of their deaths
a
are preventable.
n
d
The consequences of poverty and inequality are very significant for children. Children

experience poverty differently from adults; they have specific and different needs. While I
an adult may fall into poverty temporarily, falling into poverty in childhood can last a n
lifetime – rarely does a child get a second chance at an education or a healthy start in e
life. Even short periods of food deprivation can impact children’s long-term development. q
If children do not receive adequate nutrition, they grow smaller in size and intellectual
u
capacity, are more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases, perform worse in school, and
a
ultimately, are less likely to be productive adults. Child poverty threatens not only the
l
individual child, but is likely to be passed on to future generations, entrenching and even i
t
exacerbating inequality in society. y

This volume presents some of the critical acknowledged voices to move a necessary
equitable agenda forward. They argue for multidimensional poverty measurements,
explain current trends on global poverty and inequality, and policies to redress them
such as socially-responsive macroeconomic and sector policies, including social pro-
tection, good governance and human rights, as well as addressing systemic issues such EO
as inequalities among and within countries. nr
gt
i
iz
Contributors in this volume: Paul Collier Nora Lustig lb,
eM
Sarah Cook Bruno Martorano
Hanna Alder r
Giovanni A. Cornia Alberto Minujin to
Sabina Alkire Matthew Cummins Deepa Narayan sdre
Armando Barrientos Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir Isabel Ortiz ói
Sheridan Bartlett tr
Gaspar Fajth Paola Pereznieto ta
Laurence Chandy Geoffrey Gertz Kate E. Pickett ir D
Alex Cobham
Caroline Harper Amjad Rabi (
ISBN 978-1-105-53175-0 Ea Isabel Ortiz, Louise Moreira Daniels and
90000 Sir Richard Jolly José Manuel Roche n
d
Jomo Kwame Sundaram Andy Sumner i
ie Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir (Editors)
Nicola Jones Timo Voipio tols
Naila Kabeer Richard Wilkinson r
sa
Bill Kerry Jennifer Yablonski
)n
9 781105 531750
Sharmila Kurukulasuriya d

Division of Policy and Practice
CHILD POVERTY AND
INEQUALITY
NEW PERSPECTIVES

Isabel Ortiz
Louise Moreira Daniels
Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir
Editors

Division of Policy and Practice
Cover design: Upasana Young
Cover and back photos:
© UNICEF/NYHQ1996-0909/LeMoyne
© UNICEF/INDIA-00073/Shankar
© UNICEF/PHIA2009-0011/Lovell
© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2671/Giacomo Pirozzi

Child Poverty and Inequality: New Perspectives
Isabel Ortiz, Louise Moreira Daniels, Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir (Eds)
© United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Division of Policy and
Practice, New York 2012
ISBN: 978-1-105-53175-0

DISCLAIMER: The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed
in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
policies or views of UNICEF or of the United Nations. The text has not
been edited to official publication standards, and UNICEF accepts no
responsibility for errors. The designations in this publication do not imply
an opinion on legal status of any country or territory, or of its authorities,
or the delimitation of frontiers.
Contents

Acknowledgments i

Introduction 1
Isabel Ortiz, Louise Moreira Daniels and Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir

Making the Case for Child Poverty 14
Alberto Minujin

Beyond Headcount: The Alkire-Foster Approach to
Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement 18
Sabina Alkire and José Manuel Roche

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Child Poverty 23
Sharmila Kurukulasuriya and Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir

The Dynamics of Poverty 35
Deepa Narayan

The Changing State of Global Poverty 42
Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz

Escaping Poverty Traps – Children and Chronic Poverty 48
Caroline Harper, Hanna Alder and Paola Pereznieto

Can the MDG’s Provide a Pathway to Social Justice?
The Challenge of Intersecting Inequalities 57
Naila Kabeer

Rethinking Poverty 63
Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change,
Social Policy and Politics 69
Sarah Cook

UNICEF, Economists and Economic Policy:
Bringing Children into Development Strategies 79
Sir Richard Jolly
Child Poverty, Policy and Evidence: Mainstreaming
Children in International Development 89
Nicola Jones and Andy Sumner

Just Give Money to the Poor 97
Armando Barrientos

Social Protection: Accelerating the MDGs with Equity 103
Isabel Ortiz, Gaspar Fajth, Jennifer Yablonski and Amjad Rabi

Social Protection for All – An Agenda for Pro-Child
Growth and Child Rights 118
Timo Voipio

Rising Food Prices and Children’s Welfare 125
Nora Lustig

The Plundered Planet and The Bottom Billion: Why the
Mismanagement of Nature Matters for the World’s Most
Vulnerable 133
Paul Collier

Children in Urban Poverty: Can They Get More than Small
Change? 139
Sheridan Bartlett

Global Inequality: Beyond the Bottom Billion - A Rapid
Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries 149
Isabel Ortiz and Matthew Cummins

The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies
Stronger 205
Bill Kerry, Kate E. Pickett and Richard Wilkinson

We’re All in This Together: Why Fighting Inequality is
Central to Development 211
Alex Cobham

Policies for Reducing Income Inequality:
Latin America during the Last Decade 215
Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Bruno Martorano

Annexes 270
Contributors

Hanna Alder is Programme/Research Officer at the Overseas
Development Institute (ODI).
Sabina Alkire is Director at the Oxford Poverty and Human
Development Initiative (OPHI), Oxford University.
Armando Barrientos is Research Director of the Brooks World
Poverty Institute, University of Manchester.
Sheridan Bartlett is Senior Research Associate in the Human
Settlements Program at the International Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED) and Managing Editor of IIED’s journal,
Environments and Urbanization.
Laurence Chandy is a Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Alex Cobham is Chief Policy Advisor for Christian Aid.
Paul Collier is Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre
for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford
and fellow of St. Antony’s College.
Sarah Cook is Director of the United Nations Research Institute
for Social Development (UNRISD).
Giovanni Andrea Cornia is Professor of Development
Economics, University of Florence, and former Chief Economist at
UNICEF.
Matthew Cummins is Social and Economic Policy Specialist,
Division of Policy and Practice, UNICEF.
Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir is Policy Analyst at the Social Policy and
Economic Analysis Unit, Division of Policy and Practice, UNICEF.
Gaspar Fajth is Regional Social Policy Advisor at UNICEF’s
Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office.
Geoffrey Gertz is Research Analyst at the Brookings Institution.
Caroline Harper is Associate Director of the Chronic Poverty
Research Centre and a Research Fellow at Overseas Development
Institute.
Sir Richard Jolly is Research Associate at the Institute of
Development Studies (IDS) and former Assistant Secretary
General, UNICEF.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram is United Nations Assistant Secretary-
General for Economic Development in the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
Nicola Jones is Research Fellow at the Overseas Development
Institute (ODI).
Naila Kabeer is Professor of Gender and Development at the
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of
London.
Bill Kerry is Co-founder and Director of The Equality Trust.
Sharmila Kurukulasuriya is a Poverty Specialist formerly at the
Social Policy and Economic Analysis Unit, Division of Policy and
Practice, UNICEF.
Nora Lustig is Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American
Economics at Tulane University and non-resident fellow at the
Center for Global Development (CGD).
Bruno Martorano is Staff Consultant at UNICEF’s Innocenti
Research Center.
Alberto Minujin is Professor at The New School and at Columbia
University.

Louise Moreira Daniels is Policy Analyst, Division of Policy and
Practice, UNICEF.
Deepa Narayan is former Senior Advisor in the Poverty
Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World
Bank.
Isabel Ortiz is Associate Director, Policy and Practice, UNICEF.
Paola Pereznieto is Research Fellow in the Social Development
Programme at Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Kate Pickett is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of
York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist.
Amjad Rabi is Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Zimbabwe.
José Manuel Roche is Research Officer at Oxford Poverty and
Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
Andy Sumner is Research Fellow at the Institute of Development
Studies (IDS) and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Global
Development (CGD).
Timo Voipio is Chair of the Poverty Reduction Network
(POVNET), OECD-DAC Paris, and Senior Adviser for Global
Social Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Finland.
Richard Wilkinson is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology
at the University of Nottingham.
Jennifer Yablonski is Social Protection Specialist at the Social
Policy and Economic Analysis Unit, Division of Policy and
Practice, UNICEF.
Acknowledgements

This volume is the result of over two years of UNICEF’s work on
multidimensional child poverty and inequality. The editors of this
book would like to thank all the contributors, not only for their
papers but also for the support provided to other efforts crucial to
child wellbeing. Special thanks to Gaspar Fajth, Sharmila
Kurukulasuriya, Alberto Minujin and Giovanni Andrea Cornia for
their pioneering work in UNICEF in this area, as well as to Richard
Morgan, Director of Policy and Practice, UNICEF, for his guidance
and comments during these past years.
1

Introduction

W hile poverty reduction has become a central feature of the
international development agenda, the 21st century starts
with vast asymmetries in terms of income, access to food,
water, health, education, housing, or employment for families. Half
of the world’s children are below the international poverty line of
$2 a day and suffer from multiple deprivations and violations to
basic human rights. More than eight million children die each year
(some 22,000 per day), and most of their deaths are preventable.
Hunger, malnutrition and lack of safe drinking water contribute to
at least half of child mortality. The urgency to address these
inequalities cannot be more stressed.

The consequences of poverty and inequality are very significant for
children. Children experience poverty differently from adults; they
have specific and different needs. While an adult may fall into
poverty temporarily, falling into poverty in childhood can last a
lifetime – rarely does a child get a second chance at an education or
a healthy start in life. Even short periods of food deprivation can
impact children’s long-term development. If children do not receive
adequate nutrition, they grow smaller in size and intellectual
capacity, are more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases, perform
worse in school, and ultimately, are less likely to be productive
adults. Child poverty threatens not only the individual child, but is
likely to be passed on to future generations, entrenching and even
exacerbating inequality in society.
This volume is a compilation of recent thinking on the issue of
child poverty and inequalities. It draws on over two years of
UNICEF’s collaboration with innovative and leading thinkers on