Child poverty analysis

Supporting governments to measure and monitor child poverty is one of the key activities carried out by UNICEF in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.

This includes looking at both monetary and non-monetary factors that affect child well-being, such as access to basic health services, sanitation facilities and schools, availability of a healthy diet and safe drinking water, emotional and physical safety, and minimum standard housing conditions.

Understanding both the monetary and multi-dimensional nature of child poverty is critical to inform the design and implementation of national social policies and programmes that most effectively respond to children’s needs. This is particularly important in the region as more children suffer from multi-dimensional poverty than monetary poverty.