This paper analyses multidimensional child deprivation across thirty countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective of the paper is to present a direct method of child poverty measurement analysing deprivations experienced by the child. It applies the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology that measures aspects of child poverty, adapted to allow comparability across countries. The findings show that 67% of all the children in the thirty countries suffer from two to five deprivations crucial to their survival and development.
This paper analyses multidimensional child deprivation across thirty countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Child poverty is defined as non-fulfilment of children’s rights to survival, development, protection and participation, anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It applies the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology that measures aspects of child poverty. The methodology has been adapted to standardise the indicators and thresholds to allow comparability across countries. DHS and MICS household survey data is used, taking the child as unit of analysis and applying a life-cycle approach. The methodology moves from sector-by-sector analyses to a child level analysis by looking at each child’s outcomes or access to various goods and services and exposure to harmful practices, to determine children’s status of well-being in the various dimensions simultaneously. The paper goes beyond deprivation rates to identify the depth of child poverty by analysing the extent to which the different deprivations are experienced simultaneously.
Key Findings:
- 67 per cent of all the children in the thirty countries suffer from two to five deprivations crucial to their survival and development. This corresponds to 247 million out of 368 million children.
- For the other 15 countries of sub-Saharan Africa where the CC-MODA analysis could not be carried out, predictions of child deprivation rates have been made using GDP per capita, urban population share, and population size. Based on the actual as well as the predicted multidimensional deprivation rates, just under 300 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are multi-dimensionally poor, being deprived in two to five dimensions crucial for their survival and development.
- Monetary poverty measures (both the international $1.25 a day and national poverty measures) are weak predictors of multidimensional child poverty.
- The study finds stronger correlation between multidimensional child deprivation and GDP per capita.
- Monetary poverty and multidimensional deprivation are conceptually different, complementary poverty measures and that there are advantages in measuring both simultaneously, especially when measuring child poverty.
