Make childhood poverty history

About 600 million children worldwide are growing up in absolute poverty. Over ten million children under five years of age die every year. Nearly one billion children will be growing up with impaired mental development by 2020.

Childhood poverty has significant and long-termimplications. By the age of five we have laid our mental groundwork - perceptions,emotions, desires and feelings - for how we essentially will be 20 or 30 yearslater. By ten our capacity for basic learning has been determined. By age 15our body size, reproductive potential and general health have been greatlyinfluenced by what has happened in our lives thus far.

Stunting in children cannot be reversed. Children cannotrecover from preventable disabilities. Nor can they fully reclaim the first 15years of growth and development later on in life. Since everything from brainconnection to employment potential is laid down in these formative years,investing in child well-being is not only a social and moral imperative butalso a logical and economically sound investment strategy. Tackling childhoodpoverty and its transmission over generations and over a life-course is the wayto addressing chronic and adult poverty.

Child well-being has improved in recent years. Infantmortality rates, for example, have improved globally. Between 1970 and 2002, infantdeaths fell from 130 to 67 for every 1000 live births in South Asiaand from 141 to 104 in sub-Saharan Africa. However, thereare still some alarming trends. Child ill-health has increased, suggesting thatalthough children survive they have a poor quality of life due to frequentsickness. Child well-being has declined in some countries, including those experiencingconflict or economic crisis. Childhood poverty is a problem even in countries withgrowing economies.

Several economic, political, environmental and socialfactors influence poverty and its transmission to children. They range from individualvolition and the social context to global conditions and policies on childdevelopment:

• Nutrition is vital for child survival and earlydevelopment. Damage in early childhood can have long-term effects, slowing downlearning and increasing risks of maternal and child mortality in later life. In2000, over 150 million pre-school children were underweight and 200 million werestunted. Many of these children will suffer from ill-health as adults.
• Good quality formal education combined with informaleducation to develop life skills as well as having educated parents can help improveopportunities for children. However, inability to pay is a big obstacle to achild’s education.
• Child labour perpetuates poverty although it cansometimes enable children to attend school – an important factor in breakingpoverty cycles. Child work is highest among the poorest 20 percent of people insub-Saharan Africa and among children who do not attend school,although a high proportion of those who attend school also work.
• Adequate family income is important for achild’s development but raising family income may also increase ‘time poverty’as parents have less time for child care. As a result, children do not receiveimportant life skills education at home, older siblings have to take on child careactivities instead of attending school and children could be physically andemotionally neglected.
• Family and social bonding to nurture, guide,love and protect children is crucial as it can encourage positive aspirations,boost confidence and enhance many aspects of an individual’s life fromemployment potential to emotional security. Damage to the social fabric througheconomic stress, war or HIV will adversely affect children.

Children who cannot attend school, live on the streets, workin dangerous and exploitative conditions, carry out hard labour, are exposed tophysical, mental or emotional hazards and violence or are abandoned or orphanedare all entitled to protection and support from their communities, nations andthe international community. But can childhood poverty be overcome? Is itpossible to break poverty cycles? We understand a great deal about childhoodpoverty, its causes and the possible solutions. However, acting on thisknowledge appears to be more difficult. The articles in this issue of id21 insightsargue that policy needs to be more sensitive to the ways in which it may leadto or perpetuate childhood poverty. They outline a broad approach to reducingchild poverty.

Children can be trapped in poverty for long periods of time,as Jane Falkingham and Shamsia Ibragimova’sevidence from the Kyrgyz Republicshows – a situation that can create irreversible problems. Specific child-centredactions that are required to break potential poverty cycles, however, are oftentreated as minor aspects rather than as essential elements of social policies addressingchronic poverty.

Economic policies can be made more sensitive to children’sneeds. The importance of maintaining funding for education or comprehensivehealth programmes during periods of economic crisis cannot be stressed enough.As Hugh Waddington points out, pro-childinterventions relating to economic growth, trade and macroeconomic policy are critical.Economic policies must be designed with child-focused social policies andoutcomes in mind. No single policy can reduce child poverty: health, forexample, is dependent on water and sanitation, education and economic policynot just in terms of adequate finances but in relation to generating family income,controlling inflation and encouraging genuine pro-poor growth.

Javier Escobal illustrates howwomen’s education has addressed the critical issue of child nutrition in Peru.Evidence shows that each additional year of maternal education can lower therisk of premature child death by about eight percent. Comprehensive health careservices are also essential as is ensuring food security through foodsupplements, income support and subsidies. Cash transfers, too, as part ofbroader social protection programmes, can address immediate needs and contributeto the longer term aim of breaking poverty transfers. Armando Barrientos’article clearly shows that cash transfers can enhance incomes, enable children’seducation and health care.

Economic policies should aim at enhancing family income but shouldnot compromise children’s well-being by forcing women and other carers tomigrate for work or by making children work. However, as Jo Boyden’sarticle points out, if child labour is neither hazardous nor exploitative and ifit offers a way out of poverty or into school then a blanket ban on child workis not necessarily the solution.

Public commitments to equity in meeting basic needs andgovernment accountability are crucial. Poverty Reduction Strategies provide agood opportunity for countries to discuss children’s issues and committhemselves to ending childhood poverty. But as the Ethiopian experiencehighlighted by Nicola Jones shows, childhoodpoverty has not received much attention. Governments can be challenged to defineand identify priorities and can be held accountable. Shaamela Cassiem demonstrates how budget planning and implementationhelp to promote children’s rights in SouthAfrica. The circumstances and conditionsthat have helped ten countries to reduce childhood poverty, as explained in SantoshMehrotra’sarticle, provide powerful evidence that childhood conditions can be improved.

To sum up, it is critical that policy aiming to reducechildhood poverty takes account of relevant social, economic and politicalcontexts and is integrated within broader poverty policy. Rather than only promotingisolated ‘projects for children’, donors and implementing agencies shoulddevelop childhood poverty reduction strategies as part of their wider programmeof work. Improving children’s nutritional status to prevent irreversible damageand ensuring at least ten years of education have to be the core elements ofany strategy. It is equally important to address gender inequalities. Today’schildren are tomorrow’s adults. We have to make childhood poverty history.