Leonardo Menchini, lmenchini@unicef.orgUNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

Poverty and inequality among children in economically advanced countries

The Innocenti Report Card series

International Society for Child Indicators - 3rd International ConferenceYork, 27-29 July 2011

2

The Innocenti Report Cards series

• The UNICEF IRC series on the living conditions of children in economically advanced countries. 1st issue in 2000, on child income poverty

• From 2001 to 2004, reports on child deaths by injuries, teenage births, educational disadvantage and child maltreatment deaths

• Report Card 6 –child poverty and fiscal policies (2005)

• Report Card 7 – a multidimensional approach on child well-being (2007)

• Report Card 8 – early childhood education and care services (2008)

• Report Card 9 – inequality in child well-being (2010)

• Report Card 10 – multidimensional poverty among children (to be released in early 2012)

3

Child well-being and child rights

• Moving beyond an approach focusing solely on income and income poverty.

• Therefore looking at those positive aspects of well-being (at the potential of the child)

• Multi-dimensional approach … and linkages with the Convention on the Rights of the Child

4

Innocenti Report Card 6 – Child Poverty in Rich Countries

• Focus on income poverty and on the role of taxes and cash transfers in poverty reduction

• Factor associated with child poverty:-Demographic and social factors (including family size and composition,

age and education of the parents etc.)

- Labour market (labour force participation, earnings)

- Government policies and social protection (higher investment on families is associated with lower levels of child poverty)

5

Report Card 6: Measuring Child Poverty, Reccomendations

1.Avoid unnecessary complexity-measure must be manageable and revealing

2.Measure material/social deprivation3.Base poverty lines on social norms 4.Establish a regular monitoring system 5.Establish a ‘backstop’ poverty line and set targets6.Build public support for poverty reduction

6

The Innocenti Report Card 7 (2007) «An overview of child well-being in rich countries»• RC 7 proposes a multidimensional approach and an international

comparative perspective to assess and understand the well-being of children in economically advanced countries

• 40 indicators, grouped in 6 child well-being dimensions (material well-being, education, health and safety, risky and healthy behaviours, peer and family relationships, subjective well-being).

• All the data elaboration and the inter-country comparison is based on average indicators and rates. There is no analysis on disparities.

7

Report Card 7 – Child poverty in perspective, the league table

8

Innocenti Report Card 7 - issues

• Multidimensionality• CRC• Monitoring and indicator maps

• Methodological limitations

Areas for new exploration:

Early childhood development and care

Inequality in child well-being ...

9

Report Card 8 - Early Childhood Development and Care: Policies, access to services, quality, investments and general context.

10

Report Card 9: The children left behind in well-being• Some children will always fall behind the average.

The critical question is: how far behind?

• If some countries are successful in limiting inequality, why not others?

• In times of crisis and budget cuts, is there a voice for children at risk of being left behind?

11

Inequality in child well-being in rich countries –Report Card 9• Going beyond ‘averages’ to understand the risk of exclusion

• Focuses on the situation of children in the bottom-end of the distribution. Then measures the gap between the middle and the bottom of the distribution in 24 OECD countries

• Most of the data is from the period 2006-08. It is a snapshot of inequality in good times.

• Identifying the policy space: International comparison allows an assessment of different performances within the OECD in limiting inequality for children

12

The dimensions: inequality in material well-beingA critical dimension for child well-being

Indicators:Household disposable incomeKey education resourcesHousing living space

Top (lower inequality)1. Switzerland2. Iceland3. The Netherlands4. Denmark

Bottom (higher inequality)22. Hungary23. United States24. Slovakia

13

Inequality in education well-being

Indicators:Reading literacyMathematics literacyScience literacy(all from OECD PISA scores)

Top (for the overall dimension)1. Finland2. Ireland3. Canada4 .Denmark

Bottom21. Italy22. Austria23. France24. Belgium

14

Education: More equality doesn’t compromise top results

Finland, Sweden, Korea and Canada have low levels of inequality in education. At the same time all have very good results for children in the middle and at the top.

Some countries, like Belgium or France, have averages and top performers above the OECD means, but they have lower performers lagging behind

15

Inequality in health well-being

The indicators:Self-reported health complaintsHealthy eatingVigorous physical activities

Top1.The Netherlands2.Norway3.Portugal

Bottom22. United States23. Italy24. Hungary

Inequality in health: an overview

16

The Ranking. The Results

Top (inequality lower than OECD average in at least 2 dimensions)

Denmark

Finland

Netherlands

Switzerland

Bottom (inequality higher than OECD average in all dimensions)

Greece

Italy

United States

17

Tackling bottom-end inequality:

Child poverty, market forces and social policies

Inequality and child poverty are strongly connected.

Policy levers have an important role in cutting poverty.

Several countries are successful in limiting inequality with effective cash transfer and tax break policies.

21.2

18.5

16.6

26.4

19.6

34

19.9

18.6

17.9

14.1

16.9

28.3

16.4

17.6

12.5

17.9

9.6

10.7

12.1

12

10.7

15.2

18.7

17.2

15.5

14.6

13.5

11.0

11.0

10.7

10.7

10.6

10.0

10.0

8.8

7.2

6.9

6.8

6.7

5.8

5.8

5.7

5.4

5.2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Portugal

Spain

Italy

United Kingdom

Poland

Ireland

Luxembourg

Germany

Slovakia

Switzerland

Belgium

Hungary

Czech Republic

Austria

Slovenia

France

Iceland

Denmark

Norway

Sweden

Netherlands

Finland

Child poverty rate (% of children living in poor households)

child poverty rate after taxes and transfers (disposable income)

child poverty rates before taxes and transfers

18

Report Card 9 - Final remarks

• Children get one chance to develop. If this is missed, the consequences can be life-long.

• Amid budget cuts and austerity measures, the most vulnerable children must be the first considered, not last.

• The comparison between economically advanced countries indicates wide inequality in child well-being is not inevitable. It is policy susceptible.

19

Report Card 10 (early 2012)

• Multidimensional deprivation among children in economically advanced countries

• Update on child income poverty (2009 data) and the poverty reduction impact of cash transfers

• Main Focus on EU countries, to study multidimensional overlapping deprivation – use of the 2009 EU-SILC module on children.

• Data for children on clothing, nutrition, education and development, leisure, socialization, dwelling and neighborhoods

All the Innocenti Report Cards and the background papers are available at:

www.unicef-irc.org

Thank you