Multidimensional Child Poverty in Tonga

Highlights

*The photo above is for illustrative purposes only and bear no relation to the content in this report.

Poverty is more than a lack of money, especially for a child. Children experience poverty when they don’t get the nutrition, water, shelter, education or health care they need to survive and thrive. This is called 'multidimensional poverty' and describes a deprivation of multiple basic rights.

The effects of experiencing poverty in childhood are grave. Growing up deprived of any basic need – from nutrition to shelter to education – hinders children’s physical and cognitive development, limiting their social and economic opportunities as adults.

No matter where they are, children who grow up in poverty suffer from poor living standards, develop fewer skills for the workforce, and earn lower wages as adults. This is why, in the absence of sufficient programmes to address it, poverty tends to transmit from one generation to the next.

This National Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (N-MODA) report, a first for Tonga, aims to present a comprehensive picture of Child Poverty in Tonga. It goes beyond mere deprivation rates to identify the depth of child poverty by analysing the extent to which multiple deprivations are experienced simultaneously. It is the result of collaborative efforts by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and UNICEF Pacific, and prepared by the Social Policy Research Institute.

The data used for this analysis was collected by the Tonga Department of Statistics, through the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019. Taking the child as the unit of analysis, a life-cycle approach was used in the selection of dimensions and indicators to capture the various deprivations children experience at different stages of their lives.

This report aims to provide a benchmark to monitor and evaluate progress in achieving development for children as per Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.2. The data included will assist the Tongan Government, Development Partners and the donor community to take stock of how far the country has come towards achieving these child focused Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where gaps still exist.

Under SDG Goal 1, Tonga has committed to routinely reporting on child poverty, as defined according to country context. Tonga’s commitment includes to end extreme child poverty and to halve child poverty by 2030. We hope that the child poverty statistics provided in this report will contribute to the implementation of this commitment and inform policy planning and decision making. It should also serve as evidence of Tonga’s progress towards achieving the priority goals of Tonga Strategic Development Framework 2015-2025, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.