Global Study On Child Poverty And Disparities (PDF) - Social Policy ...

The answer varies depending on which poverty
measure is used and whether it is adjusted for
local price differences. The challenges that lowincome
households face can vary from province
to province – from the high cost of housing in
Port Vila to distance from services and markets in
more remote provinces like Torba and Tafea.
Other factors that appear to have an important
bearing on whether children live in poverty include
household size (with larger households more
likely to experience poverty) and education (the
more educated the head of a household, the
less likely it is to be poor). Gender did not seem
to play a significant role – at least in this study,
which focused on the experience of households
rather than individual children, in a country where
woman-headed households are relatively rare.
In additional to choosing the most appropriate
international, national, or regional poverty
measure, it is also necessary to choose an
equivalence scale that adjusts the measure for
specific household attributes such as number
of members and ratio of adults to children. How
much do larger households benefit from an
economy of scale? How much less does it cost
to meet a child’s basic needs than to meet an
adult’s? Further study is needed to determine
which of the wide range of existing equivalence
scales is appropriate for Vanuatu and other Pacific
Island countries.
Pillars of well-being
While the conventional approach to assessing
child poverty is important, its close focus on
expenditure (even when broadened to include
non-cash household production) gives an
incomplete picture. Certain needs are universal;
the goods and services that meet those needs
can be considered pillars of well-being, and
the inability to meet them can be considered
deprivation. In pursuing this second approach to
assessing disparities in child well-being, this study
relied on data from the 2007 Multiple Indicator
Cluster Survey:
• Shelter (primarily measured by the quality of a
dwelling’s floor and roof)
• Sanitation (type of toilet facility)
• Safe drinking water (type of water source)
• Information (access to radio, television and
telephone)
• Food (existence of stunting, wasting or
underweight)
• Education (current and past school attendance)
• Health (immunization status)
Deprivation was subdivided into two categories:
‘severe’ and ‘less severe’. Some types of
deprivation depend on a child’s age – for
example, everyone needs safe drinking water, but
infants do not suffer directly from lack of access
to information or education – and thus were
measured for the relevant age group rather than
for children as a whole.
Of these categories, information deprivation
was most prevalent among Vanuatu children
at the time of the study, but this appears to be
changing since the telecommunications reforms
of 2007. Health, shelter, and food were other most
frequently occurring severe deprivations. Patterns
of deprivation vary a great deal from one location
to the next within Vanuatu:
• Rural children are more likely to experience at
least one severe deprivation.
• The highest percentage of children experiencing
severe deprivation is in Torba Province, and
the lowest in Port Vila.
• Deprivation is highest in Torba for shelter,
in Sanma for sanitation and in Tafea for water
deprivation.
• Urban areas tend to have the highest rates
of food deprivation and the lowest rates of
education and information deprivation.
• Younger children experience higher rates of
severe deprivation than older children.
In Vanuatu, both deprivation and poverty have a
strong regional dimension. More remote areas
tend to experience the worst shelter, education,
and water deprivation, and to face challenges
related to transportation and communication.
Port Vila experiences the worst food and health
deprivation, and must deal with a higher cost of
living and greater reliance on cash incomes and
the formal labour market. Effectively meeting the
different needs of children in remote and urban
areas remains a major challenge.
Promoting child well-being
Promoting child well-being in Vanuatu requires
an evidence-based approach. More survey data
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