In Focus: Ending child poverty
For every child: equal opportunity and social inclusion
Highlights
The costs of child poverty are simply too high, for children, for communities and for entire nations across Europe and Central Asia.
As well as undermining the prospects for each child, child poverty acts as a brake on national economic and social progress. And it is often ‘inherited’, with the deprivation that stifles individual development and potential passed down from one generation to the next.
Ending child poverty is the most effective way to end poverty overall by 2030 – the first of the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet across the region, an estimated 19.8 million children are living in poor households. While regular and consistent data collection on child poverty is rare, it seems likely that child poverty rates have surged as a result of the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, hikes in food and fuel prices, and the war in Ukraine – combined with persistent gaps in social protection, including the cash benefits that should shield children and families against poverty.
Not only are children more likely to be poorer than adults, but some children are also more likely to be poorer than others. Children affected by migration and displacement, children with disabilities, children from rural areas and those from marginalized communities, including Roma, are far more likely to live in poverty than their peers.
Child poverty goes beyond a lack in income in a region of middle- and high-income countries. For many, it is felt through exclusion and lost opportunities. In some countries, up to two-thirds of children are experiencing multidimensional poverty – a term that captures the impact of poverty through the eyes of a child by including challenges to their education, health, nutrition and housing, as well as a lack of social inclusion.
We are living in an era of combined and overlapping crises triggered by conflict, climate change and the rising cost of living – a ‘poly-crisis’ that shows no signs of easing in the near future. UNICEF is calling for, and supports, action to ensure that social protection systems are robust, shock-responsive and child-focused, ready to support children and their families across the region.
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Key facts
Key policy frameworks
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
- Article 26.1: States Parties shall recognize for every child the right to benefit from social security, including social insurance, and shall take the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of this right in accordance with their national law.
- Article 27.1: States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
The European Child Guarantee (2021)
Working through National Action Plans in each EU Member State, the Guarantee aims to reduce by 5 million the number of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion by 2030, including through increasing access to early childhood education and care, education, healthcare, nutrition, and housing.
Challenges
Countries in Europe and Central Asia have seen impressive economic growth, improved standards of living and a halving of the number of people living in monetary poverty since 2000. But the benefits of progress have not been shared evenly. Some groups of people, including children, have been left behind and are locked into persistent poverty as a result of economic and social exclusion, coupled with policies and programmes that are not far-reaching or comprehensive enough.
While the coverage of child and family benefits in the region is higher than the global average, these benefits are not yet consistent in driving any meaningful reduction in child poverty, protecting families from shocks, or enabling them to invest in their children’s long-term well-being. Gaps in the availability and adequacy of cash transfers are particularly acute for the most vulnerable children – those who also have the most to gain from a combination of financial support and access to basic services, including healthcare, education and protection.
There is general agreement that child poverty is unacceptable in a region largely comprised of middle-and high-income countries. But there is less agreement on what to do about it, and persistent myths about its causes are often rooted in age-old stigma and discrimination.
One key challenge is a lack of data that is reliable, comparable and ‘myth-busting’ on the scale and nature of child poverty and on what works. Decisions about how high or low to set the national poverty line, for example, can either highlight or obscure child deprivation. At the same time, enormous variations in the cost of living within and across countries, coupled with a lack of capacity to collect and analyse data on an annual basis, can skew the statistics.
The lack of data hampers our understanding of the impact of shocks and crises, such as inflation, on poverty. What’s more, poverty data is collected at household, rather than individual, level, which can mask variations in the way that income and material goods are shared in the home. To put it simply: we don’t know for sure how many children in the region are poor, or by what measure. This information vacuum is often filled by assumptions.
How poverty is measured in Europe and Central Asia
Policies and programmes to address child poverty must be informed by an understanding of which children are poor and the nature of the poverty they face. There are three main ways in which poverty is assessed in the region: by measuring monetary child poverty, multidimensional child poverty and material deprivation.
It is important to measure the proportion of children living in households that are poor in monetary terms. The measurement of absolute monetary child poverty assesses whether a family has enough money for nutritious food, clean water, adequate clothing, adequate housing and other basic needs. In many countries in the region, including those in the European Union, relative poverty – whether a child lives in a household that is much poorer than other households - is used to measure the number of children living in monetary poverty, or ‘at risk of poverty’.
The measurement of multidimensional child poverty recognizes that child poverty is about more than money. It is also about children’s inclusion in everyday aspects of society, and whether their rights to, for example, education, health, housing or play are being upheld. A number of countries in the Europe and Central Asia region are now measuring multidimensional child poverty.
The measurement of material deprivation relates to the inability of a family to afford items and activities that are needed for an acceptable standard of living, from homes that are in a good condition and regular nutritious meals to Internet access, children’s toys and social activities. UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) in the region now include questions on material deprivation; data that is also captured through the European Union’s Child Deprivation Index.
We do know, however, that children in the region are more likely to be poorer than adults, and that some children are more likely to be poorer than others, particularly children with disabilities, children from larger families, children of single parents, and children affected by migration. Roma children also suffer disproportionately from poverty, being twice as likely to grow up in poverty as non-Roma children.
Children who grow up in poverty are less likely to access health care, complete their education or contribute to social, political and economic development, which perpetuates a cycle of poverty and disadvantage.
Yet the fiscal space for child-focused anti-poverty measures is shrinking as the result of a post-pandemic slowdown in economic growth and (in some countries) a shift of focus to the needs of rapidly aging populations.
Countries are still recovering from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and are contending with escalating climate change, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the wider regional toll of war in Ukraine. With purse-strings tightening, and governments having to make tough decisions, UNICEF argues that ending child poverty is a cost-effective investment that can ease the impact of all of these challenges and build more cohesive societies.
Material deprivation in Roma communities
UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) in Kosovo1, Montenegro and
Serbia have examined material deprivation in Roma communities. The surveys have looked for signs of material deprivation, including the inability of households to cope with unexpected expenses, keep their home warm enough, afford a one-week holiday, or avoid rent arrears. The results confirm that a high proportion of children from Roma settlements live in severe material deprivation: 80 per cent in Kosovo, 81 per cent in Montenegro and 83 per cent in Serbia, far above the national rates of 34 per cent, 20 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively.
Housing deprivation is a major concern: 85 per cent of children in Roma settlements in Kosovo, 83 per cent in Serbia and 78 per cent in Montenegro live in conditions classified as housing deprivation: in dwellings that have leaking roofs, damp walls, or no bath, shower or indoor toilet, among other issues. Material deprivation and housing deprivation almost always go hand-in-hand in Roma settlements: 93 per cent of Roma children in Serbia who are enduring housing deprivation also live in severe material deprivation (90 per cent in Kosovo and 81 per cent in Montenegro).
1 All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)
UNICEF’s work for children
All children have the right to a standard of living that nurtures their development, well-being and inclusion. That is why UNICEF supports governments across Europe and Central Asia to shield children from the impact of poverty and deprivation, lift families out of poverty and end intergenerational cycles of disadvantage and exclusion.
Strengthening social protection systems
UNICEF works with governments and other partners to strengthen social protection systems so that they reach all families whenever they need them. We work to strengthen family-friendly policies, ensuring that children and families benefit from paid parental leave, support for breastfeeding, affordable and accessible quality childcare, and child benefits. We aim to build and reinforce links between social protection for children and families and other essential services, such as social care, early childhood development, education, health and more, to tackle the multidimensional poverty that goes beyond lack of income.
And we work with governments on public finance for children, ensuring that budgets are designed and implemented with children’s rights and needs in mind.
UNICEF also supports, and makes the case for, shock-responsive social protection – flexible support that can be ramped up in response to shocks such as pandemics, conflicts and other crises. This can help to break the poverty cycle, so that families are not continually clambering out of poverty, only to fall back into it when the next crisis comes along. Shock-responsive social protection that expands existing support has been shown to be more cost effective – and therefore more sustainable – than creating stand-alone responses each time a crisis hits.
Humanitarian cash transfers: a lifeline for Ukrainian families
A UNICEF partnership with the European Union has provided a lifeline for vulnerable families and children in Ukraine, many of whom have lost their homes and livelihoods. Amid the continued violence and uncertainty of the war, humanitarian cash transfers not only help these families get by, but also empower them by enabling them to address their urgent needs.
Inna and her four children are now rebuilding their home in Kharkiv thanks to the cash transfers. “After the war started, I cleaned a house in Kharkiv,” she says. “But later, the house owners called and told me there was no need to clean it anymore because the house had been ruined. It was destroyed by a bomb. When our own apartment was hit by a shell, we didn’t know whether we should be happy to stay alive or cry because of the destroyed building,” says Inna.
When a shell hit her children’s bedroom, Inna grew desperate. She did not have the money to replace the windows and protect their home from the cold. The humanitarian cash transfer programme helped her with funds for construction materials.
“I bought tiles, a special foil to prevent the windows from falling out and cement to renovate the children’s room,” says Inna, happily. “It’s a lot of money for us and, without UNICEF’s help, this renovation would be impossible.”
Between March 2022 and December 2023, more than 280,000 families received cash transfers, covering more than 760,000 children and at least 70,000 children with disabilities.
UNICEF’s winterization programme in 2023 provided extra support to vulnerable households. Through cash transfers and ‘top-ups’ including essentials like warm clothing for children, thousands of families received aid to meet their winter-related needs.
Svitlana and her four children, for example, used the cash transfers to buy food, warm clothing and pay the rent for their small apartment. “This assistance helped us to feel more secure about our tomorrow,” says Svitlana, who lives under constant shelling in the Dnipro region. “I realized that I was not alone.”
Ramping up social protection for children in Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic
UNICEF-led research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia contributed to the Government’s decision to expand its cash benefits for children, including a one-time emergency cash benefit for every child in the country. The process began with an assessment by UNICEF, asking whether the country’s existing social protection system could expand to cover new recipients. The answer was yes.
In response, the Government expanded its existing Targeted Social Assistance programme (TSA) to reach 70,000 families who were already in the TSA database but who had not yet qualified for payments, all of whom received a monthly cash transfer of up to 100 GEL (up to $30) for six months. Around 21,000 families who were already receiving the TSA and who had three or more children received 50 GEL (around $16) each month for each child. There were also top-up payments of 100 GEL (around $30) for children with disabilities every month for six months. And the Government provided a one-time child benefit of 200 GEL (around $60) for every child in Georgia under the age of 18, reaching 900,000 children at a cost of $65 million.
By June 2021, 215,000 children were being reached by the TSA programme – around 25 per cent of the country’s children – only just below the official child poverty figure of 26 per cent.
UNICEF’s production of timely, relevant and rigorous evidence to promote child-focused reforms proved crucial, and built on investment by UNICEF and the World Bank since 2013 to strengthen Georgia’s social protection system.
Generating hard evidence to expand child and family benefits
UNICEF supports governments to monitor both child poverty and the positive impact of social protection to demonstrate the scale of the challenge and showcase what works. We aim to reinforce the region’s ability to collect and analyse data, and to translate the data into effective national policies, programmes and budgets. This work is helping to expand national coverage of cash transfer programmes for children and their families.
In Kazakhstan, for example, UNICEF-supported research on multidimensional child poverty with the National Bureau of Statistics found that 28.5 per cent of children face multiple deprivations: one in four in urban areas, rising to one in three in rural parts of the country.
In response, Kazakhstan introduced a Social Code in 2023 to increase the age of eligibility for childcare benefits from 12 to 18 months, and a National Fund for Children which will allocate half of its annual investment to children’s savings accounts until they turn 18.
In Uzbekistan, we work with the Statistics Agency, the Center for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR), and the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction to produce regular estimates of multidimensional and monetary poverty. Research by UNICEF and CERR in 2023 found that almost 45 per cent of children in the country were multidimensionally poor. Our joint research on monetary child poverty in Uzbekistan has found that it fell from around 21 per cent in 2021 to 14 per cent in 2023, noting that the rate would have increased to around 22 per cent in the absence of cash transfers. Our support for social protection reforms in the country has also contributed to the introduction of a monthly cash transfer for more than 55,500 people who are caring for children with disabilities.
In Montenegro, UNICEF has played a key role in transforming a targeted cash grant that once reached only 10 per cent of the country’s children into a Universal Child Allowance for all children, fully financed from the public budget.
We also continue to work with the European Commission on implementing the European Child Guarantee. This aims to reduce child poverty and social exclusion for all children in European Union countries. The Guarantee is based on National Action Plans to increase access for children at risk of poverty and social exclusion to core social services: free early childhood education and care, free education, free healthcare, healthy nutrition and adequate housing.
Universal child allowance for children in Montenegro: a step towards poverty reduction
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 32 per cent of all children in Montenegro were living in poverty, and 80 per cent faced multidimensional poverty, from a lack of education to a lack of protection. Children were also at a higher risk of poverty than other age groups.
Before much-needed reforms in 2021, the country’s child allowance covered only 10 per cent of all children, and many living just above the poverty line were not covered at all.
UNICEF and its partners launched a campaign, based on UNICEF-supported research, to reduce child poverty and inequality, strengthen social protection and foster equitable economic growth. Our analysis of multidimensional child poverty found that young children were the most deprived age group, at a time in their lives that is pivotal for their development and well-being. We also showcased the impact of child benefits, nudging the Government to expand and improve its existing programme.
As a result, the child allowance was expanded from children up to the age of 6 to all those under 18. The percentage of children at risk of poverty fell from 30.5 per cent to 28.4 per cent in the first year, with 128,000 children benefiting – 90 per cent of all children in the country.
Larisa Ciguljin, a mother of four children, welcomed the first child allowance for her youngest child, five-year-old Karim: “The children have finally received some financial aid. Although it is not a large amount, it is still welcome and means a lot to the parents, because we constantly have some expenses. We will use the money to pay for his kindergarten”.
This first step provides families with young children the predictable financial support they need. The task ahead is to make sure that this support is complemented by access to quality health care, education and protection from violence for every child.
Call to action
Ending child poverty and breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty starts with ensuring that every child and family has the financial resources they need to safeguard their own well-being and seize opportunities when they arise – whether times are good or bad. It also means ensuring the full inclusion of every child in their society. It means guaranteeing their access to good quality health and education, to the skills they need for their future, and to protection from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation. It means making sure that political commitments to poverty reduction are backed by adequate and well-executed budgets, so that the benefits of investing in children become more visible. And it means working in partnership with different government ministries and sectors, as well as communities, children and young people to tackle child poverty from every direction.
The task ahead is to reach every child in need. That is why we continue to scale up our efforts in three key areas. First, by providing policy advice and technical assistance to help governments to extend coverage and improve access to cash benefits and core services for poor and vulnerable children and their families. Second, by working to reinforce coordination and links across social assistance, family support and other essential services. Finally, we aim to embed a culture of regular monitoring, evaluation and research on child poverty to guide the design and implementation of policies and programmes that really work.
Our aim: to create a virtuous circle, where measures to end child poverty work in combination with – and enhance – the full inclusion of children in their communities and societies.
