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

Torba are important in terms of helping the most
disadvantaged rural residents, but should not
necessarily be expected to have a significant
impact on overall poverty in Vanuatu. A challenge
for policies to reduce poverty is to determine
ways of helping the poorest while having the
maximum impact on overall poverty.
Figure 2.5 shows that the share of poor children
living in different parts of Vanuatu changes
depending on the poverty line. Based on all
poverty lines except the sub-national poverty lines,
the share of poor children living in Port Vila is
under 10 per cent, but using the sub-national
poverty line more than 30 per cent of poor
children live in Port Vila. As noted above, Torba
has the highest poverty rates; for all approaches
to measuring poverty, around 10 per cent to 15
per cent of poor children live in Torba. The
share of poor children living in Malampa also
does not change greatly with the poverty measure
used, ranging between 5 per cent and 10 per cent.
Whichever poverty measure is used, quite
a high share of poor children live in Tafea –
between 25 per cent and 45 per cent, as Tafea
has both high poverty rates and a significantly
higher share of the population than Torba.
Correlations between poverty and
household characteristics
Location is thus an extremely important influence
on child poverty in Vanuatu. But what other
characteristics and circumstances influence child
poverty? Table 2.2 shows the correlates of child
poverty. Two measures of poverty are shown:
the poverty headcount rate (the percentage of
each group who are living below the national
BNPL) and the poverty gap (the average distance
between that poverty line and actual household
income, with the gap measured as a percentage
of the national poverty line). Because this analysis
focuses on household characteristics, the Figures
refer to households with children rather than the
proportion of children.
Figure 2.5: Poor children living in different
locations by poverty measure, 2006 (%)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Port Vila Luganville Shefa (Rural) Tafea
Malampa Penama Sanma (Rural) Torba
0% $1.08 $1.25 $50% 60% National BNPL Region BNPL
median
median
Source: Estimated from 2006 HIES.
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