Global Child Poverty and Well-Being: Measurement, Concepts, Policy and Action

by Alberto Minujin (Editor), Shailen Nandy (Editor)

Overview

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. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, 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 ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847424815
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Series:	Studies in Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Alberto Minujin works at the Global Policy Section in the Division of Policy and Planning of UNICEF Head Quarters (New York), working on social policy, poverty and human rights issues. Shailen Nandy is a member of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
Foreword
      Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations

Part I
1. Introduction
      Shailen Nandy and Alberto Minujin
2. Child rights, child survival and child poverty: the debate
      Simon Pemberton, David Gordon and Shailen Nandy
3. Equity begins with children
      Jan Vandemoortele
Part 2
4. Measuring child poverty and deprivation
      David Gordon and Shailen Nandy
5. Beyond headcount: measures that reflect the breadth and components of child poverty
      Sabina Alkire and José Manuel Roche
6. Defining child poverty in South Africa using the socially perceived necessities approach
      Helen Barnes and Gemma Wright
7. Child well-being in the US: proposal for the development of a 'Tots Index' using the human development conceptual framework
      Sarah Burd-Sharps, Patrick Guyer, Ted Lechterman and Kristen Lewis
8. A snapshot of child well-being in transition countries: exploring new methods of monitoring child well-being
      Petra Hoelscher, Dominic Richardson and Jonathan Bradshaw
9. Enhancing the fight against child poverty in the European Union: a benchmarking exercise
      Isabelle Maquet-Engsted
10. Assessing child well-being in developing countries: making policies work for children
      Shirley Gatenio Gabel and Sheila B. Kamerman
Part 3
11. Multidimensional child poverty in Tanzania: analysis of situation, changes and sensitivity of thresholds
      Albert Minujin and Enrique Delamonica
12. A multidimensional profile of child poverty in Congo Brazzaville
      Geranda Notten, Chris de Neubourg, Bethuel Makosso and Alain Beltran Mpoue
13. Multidimensional child poverty in Vietnam
      Keetie Roelen and Franziska Gassmann
14. Mulitdimensional child deprivation in Iran
      Sepideh Yousefzadeh Faal Deghati, Andrés Mideros Mora and Chris de Neubourg
15. Multidimensional child poverty in Haiti
      David Gordon, Audrey Lenoel and Shailen Nandy
16. Child poverty in Latin America: multiple deprivation and monetary measures combined
      Ernesto Espíndola Advis and María Nieves Rico
17. Changes in child poverty and deprivation in Sub-Saharan Africa in South Asia at the end of the 20th century
      Shailen Nandy
Part 4
18. Utopia calling: eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond
      Ruth Levitas
19. Continuity and change in poor children's lives: evidence from Young Lives
      Jo Boyden, Abby Hardgrove and Caroline Knowles
20. Policy implications of multidimensional poverty measurement in Morocco
      Hicham Ait Mansour
21. A multidimensional response to tackling child poverty and disparities: Reflections from the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities
      Gaspar Fajth, Sharmila Kurukulasuriya and Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir
22. Investment in social security: a possible United Nations model for child benefit?
      Peter Townsend
23. Conclusion
      Shailen Nandy and Alberto Minujin

Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an engaging, comprehensive, thoughtful, and thorough collection of evidence, ideas and expertise. It is indispensable in its pooled knowledge and picture of the possibilities for a world able to better tackle the suffering caused needlessly by the persistence of child poverty.

Poverty & Public Policy - Virginia Parish Beard

This substantial volume—23 chapters—brings together most of the key authors in the field of global childhood poverty research and multidimensional measurement. Its aim is to use national and regional level case studies to show how work on the measurement and alleviation of child poverty has developed over the past two decades in relation to how child poverty is conceptualized and the availability of data to monitor its effects.” 

Studies in Social Justice - Laura Camfield

"This important book provides a comprehensive and damning indictment of the extent of child poverty across the globe, in rich countries as well as poor. Yet, as argued here, child poverty could be radically reduced and eventually eliminated through appropriate and feasible policies. This book should be read by policy-makers world-wide."—Frances Stewart, University of Oxford

Frances Stewart