Economic Development
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty,
and Income Support
Slides courtesy of Dr. Judith Streak
Life Impact | The University of Adelaide
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Overview
• Why child poverty is important to understand and address
• Conceptualization definition and measurement issues
• Key role players in the fight against child poverty
• Scale and distribution of child poverty
• Strategy to address child poverty
– Learning from causes and composition of child poverty
– A multi-pronged approach
– Rise of the cash transfer
– Debate over conditionality
– Gender considerations
Slide 1
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Rationale – Why address and study child poverty?
• 4 main reasons why addressing child poverty a priority
– Moral reason especially with respect to very young
– CRC ratification and human rights obligations
– Child population large share of developing country
pops and even larger share of poor pops
– Limits future growth and development prospects
• Human capital and productivity
• Fiscal impact (crime, health, welfare)
• Need to study child poverty to inform strategy to address
Slide 2
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement
• Traditionally or uni-dimensional approach:
– conceived as resource/material deprivation i.e.
children (e.g. age 0-17 having insufficient access to
resources
– defined as children living in households having
insufficient access to resources
– measured using a money metric indicator and
household survey (income or expenditure) data
Slide 3
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement
• Can distinguish two poverty and deprivation concepts
– Absolute
• Deprivation line set at a level seen to constitute
the minimum
– Relative
• Deprivation line set a level seen as insufficient
relative to others in the society
Slide 4
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement
• But traditional approach has limitations:
– too narrow focus on material deprivation
– has to use an adult equivalence scale to move from
household to individual level (including child) welfare
and in process makes unrealistic assumptions about
• needs / cost of household members
• equality in household resource allocation
– measures means not ends (Sen’s critique)
Slide 5
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement
• Modern approach:
– conceptualizes child poverty in a multi-dimensional
way – material deprivation (child poverty) plus..
– defines deprivations as insufficient outcomes across
the range of domains in the wellbeing concept
– uses a range of indicators (indirect monetary and
direct) in measurement
• Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to profile
child poverty for policy purposes
Slide 6
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement:
Case study of South Africa
• Qualitative research has revealed nature of deprivations
poor children suffer in addition to resource deprivation and
this has informed a poverty model. Has emphasized the
psycho-social or relational element in child poverty .
•
Children living in poverty in South Africa speak about:
“ feelings of income insufficiency and hunger, feelings of ill
health and lack of ability to fulfill ones desire to go to
school, feelings of economic and physical insecurity and
feelings of social exclusion and powerlessness”.
Slide 7
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Case study South Africa: What poor children say:
• “…waking up with nothing to eat. You go to school
hungry”
(Boy 16 years interviewed by in 2002).
• “The electricity is connected but there is no money to
pay for lights and we have no stove so we only eat
cooked food if it is given to us” (Girl, age 15, 2003).
Slide 8
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Case study South Africa…what poor children say:
– “If you are in Tugela Ferry and other children see you are
poor, they laugh – especially the school children. They
speak loudly so that you can hear they are laughing and
talking about you. I feel bad then” (Boy child from Msinga
KwaZulu- Natal, interviewed in 2000).
– It is very hard to go to someone else and ask ‘please can
you give me some mealie meal?’ The hunger hurts but you
have another pain inside from having to ask for food”
(Child between 8-14 years, 2000).
Slide 9
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement:
Case study of South Africa
•
Quantitative research has been useful in showing:
– Extent of child poverty, its depth and severity
– Distribution of child poverty
• Research shows critical point that children with particular
characteristics are more at risk than others
Slide 10
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Conceptualization, definition & measurement:
Case study of South Africa
• In SA poor children most at risk (highest incidence, depth and
severity measures of poverty) are:
– African and Coloured children (due to apartheid)
– Very young children (age 0-4 years)
– Children without biological caregivers in household
– Children living on the street
– Children living with mentally ill and other sick caregivers
including those living with HIV and AIDS
• In many developing countries girl children but not SA
Slide 11
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Key role players in the fight against child poverty
• Domestic
– Developing country governments
– Civil society organizations
– Caregivers, especially mothers in poor households
• International
– Development agencies with a child poverty and rights
focus such as UNICEF and Save the Children Save the
Children (UK and Sweden in particular)
• Have a look at UNICEF web page
Slide 12
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy - Introduction
• To understand nature of appropriate strategy to fight
child poverty need to begin by thinking about:
– Groups of children who are over-represented in the
poor child population (i.e. most at risk)
– Causes of child poverty
Slide 13
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – Needs to be informed by characteristics
of most vulnerable
• Children most at risk international evidence suggests are children
living in low income households and where there is:
– a women head or single parent
– no member in formal employment
– a deep rural area context
– very many children in the household
– a non-biological caregiver
– a sick or terminally ill caregiver ( HIV/AIDs impacts here)
– mental illness and substance abuse amongst caregiver(s)
• In many countries girls also particularly at risk
Slide 14
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy to address child poverty must also be
informed by causes …
• Causes of child poverty (similar to adult poverty)
– Unemployment / failure of economy to create unskilled jobs
– Inadequate access to capital and under-investment in assets
of poor (e.g. land, human capital, credit access)
– Insufficient access to and demand for good quality social
services (e.g. ECD, education and health) and basic services
– Lack of social security (insurance and social assistance)
– Political and legal systems that discriminate against poor /
deny rights especially of women and girls
Slide 15
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy: The need for work on many fronts
• Causes, multi-dimensional child poverty & complementarities call for
a multi-pronged approach:
– Policies for economic growth and unskilled job creation
– Progressive taxation and spending on programmes that build
assets of poor children and their caregivers (e.g. land, education,
health, capital)
– Spending on social protection programmes incl. social assistance
(define)
– Legal and policy reform that is line with child rights and
encourage prioritization of children in budgeting (research and
advocacy key here)
Slide 16
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy: Social protection and the cash transfer
key measure
• Social protection …“… is a set of interventions intended to
reduce social and economic risks and vulnerabilities and to
alleviate extreme poverty and deprivation” (UNICEF 2011)
• Includes:
– Social security (including social insurance and social
assistance like cash transfers, food transfers / vouchers,
subsidies for ECD and child care)
– Laws around minimum wages and other laws / policies
that protect and advance interests of poor
Slide 17
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy: The rise of the cash transfer …
• Cash transfer measure has become increasingly popular over
the last decade and a half. Why?
– Cash transfers traditionally seen as a drain on resources
and leading to perverse behavioral incentives (e.g.
increased fertility and decreased labor supply)
– But then research accumulated on role as not only a
safety net but also trampoline out of poverty. How?
• Risk taking leading to greater productivity
• Migration leading to increased wage income
• Financing child education raising productivity
Slide 18
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The cash transfer measure cont…
• Need to distinguish two main varieties / programme model:
– Unconditional cash transfer (UCT)
• Cash paid to caregiver of eligible children without
behavioral conditions attached to it
– Conditional (CCT)
• Cash payment linked to behavioral conditions (e.g.
school enrollment and attendance; health clinic check
ups; child care information; work obligations)
Slide 19
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The cash transfer measure cont..
• Leading example of an UCT (until last year) is the Child Support
Grant in South Africa
– Implemented in April 1998
– Grown to support nearly 12 million children
– Initially only children age 0-6, now 0-15 soon 0-17
– Expansion informed by evidence of excellent performance
• Huge reach and good implementation
• Enhanced access to schooling / earlier enrollment
• Improved child nutritional outcomes
– Though still some concerns about unequal impact ..
•
Slide 20
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The cash transfer measure cont…
• Leading examples of the CCT variety are Progresa (Mexico) and
Bolsa Escola (Brazil)
– Also excellent evidence of positive impacts
• Pushed by World Bank and informed by these to programmes
impact evidence there has been a proliferation of CCT programmes
around the world
– Some countries have introduced as new programmes
– Others have / or are turning their UCT into CTT
• South Africa recent linking of CSG to education conditions
and Australia income management pilots
Slide 21
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The conditionality debate
• Much debate about conditionality in cash transfer design
• Arguments for CCT programme:
– Addresses some of the concern that children will not be
prioritized in spending of the money transfer
– Addresses under-investment in human capital and child
labor
– Works on multitude of fronts – income, health & education
– Power to women (as mostly women receive the transfer)
– Politically more acceptable in some contexts!
Slide 22
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The conditionality debate
• (Some) arguments against CCT:
– Higher administration costs and more difficult to monitor &
implement hence more expensive
– Unconditional cash transfer programmes (e.g. CSG and pensions
paid in South Africa) have had similar positive impacts on child
wellbeing (nutrition, access to school) and power of women
– Patronizing / against rights discourse to tell poor caregivers how
to spend money on their children
– Poor quality of services not insufficient demand commonly main
constraint on HK devt.
Slide 23
University of Papua New Guinea
Lecture 14: Gender, Child Poverty, and Income Support
Michael Cornish
Strategy – The conditionality debate
• See Fizbein et al. World Bank report (2009 summary) for
– evidence gathered around the world on the impact of CCTs
on child wellbeing / deprivation
– arguments about merits of the CCT
• See Duflo (2003) and Aguero et al. (2005) for evidence
(gathered in South Africa) on the impact of UCTs on child
wellbeing
• See also the collection of articles edited by Devereux (2009)
Slide 24
University of Papua New Guinea