Analysing Multidimensional Child Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings Using an International Comparative Approach

Abstract

This study provides with a first indication on the number of multidimensionally poor children in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents a methodology measuring multidimensional child deprivation within and across countries, and it is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 1 focusing on multidimensional poverty by age and gender. Using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology, the study finds that 67% or 247 million children are multidimensionally poor in the thirty sub-Saharan African countries included in the analysis. Multidimensional poverty is defined as missing two to five aspects of basic child well-being captured by dimensions anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely nutrition, health, education, information, water, sanitation, and housing. The analysis also predicts the multidimensional child poverty rates for the whole sub-Saharan African region estimating 64% or 291 million children to be multidimensionally poor. In comparison, monetary poverty rates measured as less than USD 1.25 PPP per capita spending a day and weighted by the child population size finds 48% poor children. The results of this study highlight the extent of multidimensional poverty among children in sub-Saharan Africa and the need for children to have a specific poverty measure in their own right.

Multidimensional Poverty of Children in Mozambique

“…2 They estimate that the number of poor children is roughly equal in each region, and that about half of South Asia's children and two-thirds of Sub-Saharan children can be considered multidimensionally poor (Alkire et al 2017). This is also in line with recent estimations for Sub-Saharan Africa by de Milliano and Plavgo (2018). 3 The consumption poverty headcount has fallen by about 25 percentage points and the percentage of people living in a household characterized by six contemporaneous deprivations (not one member having completed first level primary school, no access to safe water, inadequate sanitation, grass roofing, no electricity, and very limited possession of durable goods) went down from about half to less than 15% of the population (DEEF 2016).…”

The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer on Multidimensional Deprivation of Young Women: Evidence from South Africa’s HTPN 068

“…We then examined the interaction between the CCT and parents’ level of education on the grounds that parental education is found to be one of the strongest correlates with multidimensional child poverty across sub-Saharan Africa (de Milliano and Plavgo 2018 ). We tested the interaction between the CCT and separate indicators for fathers and mothers completion of at least primary schooling.…”

Child Poverty in Mozambique

“…MODA does not define, on principle, the threshold to define multidimensional poverty, instead reporting results for each possible cut-off point, and leaving to policy discussion to define such multidimensional child poverty as it better suited for the context. However, as basis for policy discussion and to simplify the presentation of certain results, in this study, a child will be considered deprived if he or she suffers from two or more deprivations, 4 which is the same threshold adopted in a regional study in SSA (de Milliano & Plavgo, 2017) .…”