2nd Encontro Nacional De Produtores E Usuarios De Informacoes
Sociais, Economicas E Territorias
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 21-25th August 2006
Child Poverty & Inequality: Some Global Results
Professor David Gordon
Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
University of Bristol, UK
www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty
23rd August 2006
All cultures have a concept of Poverty
“In
Wealth, many friends, in poverty not even relatives”
- Japanese Proverb
“Poverty is the worst form of violence!”
- Mahatma Gandhi - Indian Philosopher & Freedom Fighter
“The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty”
George Bernard Shaw - Irish Playwright & Novelist
1
Millennium Development Goals
Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is
less than $1 a day
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger
Goal 2 Achieve universal primary education
Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be
able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Goal 3 Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably
by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015
Goal 4 Reduce child mortality
Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality
rate
Goal 5 Improve maternal health
Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality
ratio
Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of Malaria &
other major diseases
Child Poverty in the UK
The UK Government is committed to tackling the problem of child
poverty. In March 1999, the Prime Minister Tony Blair set out a
commitment to end child poverty forever:
“And I will set out our historic aim that ours is the first generation to end
child poverty forever, and it will take a generation. It is a 20-year mission
but I believe it can be done.
2
“Inequality in health is the worst inequality
of all. There is no more serious inequality
than knowing that you’ll die sooner
because you’re badly off”
Frank Dobson, 1997
(UK Secretary of state for
Health 1997-1999)
Age at death by age group, 1990-1995
Source: The State of the World Population 1998
3
Only the good die young? – what kills children
Cause of death for children under five
Bars show
estimated
confidence
interval
“The
world's biggest killer and the greatest cause of ill
health and suffering across the globe is listed almost at the
end of the International Classification of Diseases. It is
given code Z59.5 -- extreme poverty.
World Health Organisation (1995)
Seven out of 10 childhood deaths in developing countries
can be attributed to just five main causes - or a combination
of them: pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malaria and
malnutrition. Around the world, three out of four children
seen by health services are suffering from at least one of
these conditions.
World Health Organisation (1996; 1998).
4
Champagne glass of income distribution
The stem of the
glass is getting
thinner. In 1960
the income of
the wealthiest
fifth was 30
times greater
than that of the
poorest fifth;
now it's more
than 80 times
greater.
Absolute and Overall Poverty
After the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, 117 countries
adopted a declaration and programme of action which included commitments to eradicate
“absolute” and reduce “overall” poverty.
Absolute poverty was defined as "a condition characterised by severe deprivation of
basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health,
shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to
services."
5
Child Poverty in the World
Over one billion children – half the children in the
world- suffer from severe deprivation of basic human
need and 30% (650 million) suffer from absolute
poverty (two or more severe deprivations).
‘severe deprivation of basic human need’ are those circumstances
that are highly likely to have serious adverse consequences for the
health, well-being and development of children. Severe deprivations
are causally related to ‘poor’ developmental outcomes both long
and short term.
Severe Deprivation of Basic Human Need for Children
•Almost a third of the world’s children live in dwellings with more than five people per
room or which have a mud floor.
•Over half a billion children (27%) have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
•Over 400 million children (19%) are using unsafe (open) water sources or have more
than a 15-minute walk to water.
•About one child in five, aged 3 to 18, lacks access to radio, television, telephone or
newspapers at home.
•Sixteen percent of children under five years in the world are severely malnourished,
almost half of whom are in South Asia.
•275 million children (13%) have not been immunised against any diseases or have
had a recent illness causing diarrhoea and have not received any medical advice or
treatment.
•One child in nine aged between 7 and 18 (over 140 million) are severely educationally
deprived - they have never been to school.
6
Sample size details, by region
Region
Number of
surveys
Number of
children in
sample
Number of
children under
18 in 2000
(in 000s)
Sample
fraction
(1 child in
every)
Latin America & Caribbean
12
235,176
193,374
822
Middle East North Africa
5
247,625
151,854
613
South Asia
4
318,361
559,615
1,758
East Asia & Pacific
8
939,662
590,621
629
West & Central Asia
8
68,585
85,559
1,247
Sub-Saharan Africa
36
666,833
317,860
477
Eastern Europe (Non-EU)
4
26,332
27,657
1,050
Developing World
77
2,502,574
1,926,540
770
Wealthy countries
0
0
223,123
-
World total
77
2,502,574
2,149,572
859
Percent of the world’s children severely deprived of basic human needs
7
Global Rural and Urban Absolute Child Poverty Rates
8
Shelter
Sanitation
Water
]
] Physical Capital Items
]
Information
Food
Health
Education
]
] Human Capital Items
]
The severe deprivations of basic human need which affect the greatest number of
children are ‘physical capital’ problems - deprivation of shelter, water and sanitation.
Whilst fewer children suffer from deprivations of ‘human capital’ – health, education
and nutrition, most of the world’s anti-poverty policies are aimed at improving that
human capital, particularly in urban areas
9