Global Child Poverty and Well-Being

"This is an important and ground-breaking study of an issue which should be of serious concern to every human being on the planet. Alberto Minujin & Shailen Nandy's text needs to be widely and closely read." Lord Puttnam, CBE.

"This important book provides a comprehensive and damning indictment of the extent of child poverty across the globe, in rich countries as well as poor. Yet as, argued here, child poverty could be radically reduced and eventually eliminated through appropriate and feasible policies. This book should be read by policy-makers world-wide. " Frances Stewart, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford

"This is an engaging, comprehensive, thoughtful, and thorough collection of evidence, ideas and expertise. It is indispensable in its pooled knowledge and picture of the possibilities for a world able to better tackle the suffering caused needlessly by the persistence of child poverty." Poverty and Public Policy

Born in Argentina, Alberto Minujin is professor at The New School University, New York, researching and teaching about child poverty reduction and equity, human rights, monitoring and evaluation, and social research methods. He is director of the Equity for Children Program and Website. A UNICEF Senior Officer from 1990-2005 with expertise in North and South America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Minujin is a mathematician with training in Applied Statistics and Demography.

Shailen Nandy is Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. A co-author of Child poverty in the developing world (with David Gordon, Christina Pantazis, Simon A. Pemberton and Peter Townsend; The Policy Press, 2003), he has undertaken research for UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the UK Department for International Development. He is currently working on the ESRC-funded research project Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK (www.poverty.ac.uk).

Foreword: Unicef, children and child poverty ~ Sir Richard Jolly;

Part 1: Framing the debate

Introduction ~ Shailen Nandy and Alberto Minujin; Child rights, child survival and child poverty: the debate ~ Simon Pemberton, David Gordon and Shailen Nandy; Equity begins with children ~ Jan Vandemoortele;

Part 2: Measurement and methodologies

Measuring child poverty and deprivation ~ David Gordon and Shailen Nandy; Beyond headcount: measures that reflect the breadth and components of child poverty ~ Sabina Alkire and Jose Manuel Roche; Defining child poverty in South Africa using the socially perceived necessities approach ~ Helen Barnes and Gemma Wright; Child well-being in the US: a proposal for the development of a 'Tot's Index' using the Human Development conceptual framework ~ Sarah Burd-Sharps, Patrick Guyer, Ted Lechterman and Kirsten Lewis; A snapshot of child well-being in transition countries: exploring new methods for monitoring child well-being ~ Petra Hoelscher, Dominic Richardson and Jonathan Bradshaw; Enhancing the fight against child poverty in the European Union: an EU benchmarking exercise ~ Isabelle Engsted-Maquet; Assessing child well-being in developing countries: making policies work for children ~ Shirley Gatenio-Gabel and Sheila Kamerman;

Part 3:

Multidimensional child poverty in Tanzania ~ Alberto Minujin and Enrique Delamonica; Multidimensional child poverty in Congo Brazzaville ~ Geranda Notten, Chris de Neurbourg, Bethuel Makosso and Alain Beltran Mpoue; Multidimensional poverty in Vietnam ~ Keetit Roelen and Fanziska Gassman; Multidimensional deprivation among children in Iran ~ Sepideh Yousefzadeh Faal Deghati, Andrés Mideros Mora, and Chris de Neubourg; Multidimensional child poverty in Haiti ~ David Gordon, Audrey Lenoel and Shailen Nandy; Multidimensional child poverty in Latin America ~ Ernesto Espinola and María Nieves Rico; Changes in child poverty and deprivation in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia at the end of the 20th century ~ Shailen Nandy;

Part 4: Evidence base implications for policy

Utopia calling: Eradicating child poverty in the United Kingdom and beyond ~ Ruth Levitas; Continuity and change in poor children's lives: evidence from Young Lives ~ Jo Boyden, Abby Hardgrove and Caroline Knowles; Policy implications of multidimensional poverty measurement in Morocco ~ Hicham Ait Mansour; Making policies work for children living in poverty: reflections from the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities ~ Gaspa Fajth, Sharmila Kurukulasuriya and Solrun Engilbertsdottir; Investment in social security: a possible UN model for child benefit ~ Peter Townsend; Conclusions ~ Shailen Nandy and Alberto Minujin.