Child poverty and child rights
in developing countries
This short report presents the first ever scientific
measurement of the extent and depth of child
poverty in all the developing regions of the world. It
represents a summary of a much larger research
report on child poverty and child rights funded by
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
(Gordon et al, 2001, 2003). Full details of this
research will be published in a future book on this
subject.
This measurement of child poverty is based on
internationally agreed definitions arising from the
international framework of child rights. In successive
annual reports, UNICEF has argued that poverty is
one of the greatest obstacles to the survival and
development of children. The near-consensus
reached by all national governments in framing the
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child gave
momentum to serious and effective work to reduce
violations of a number of rights relevant to the
reduction of child poverty in different countries.
Poverty denies children their fundamental human
rights. Severe or extreme poverty can cause children
permanent damage – both physically and mentally –
stunt and distort their development and destroy
opportunities of fulfilment, including the roles they
are expected to play successively as they get older in
family, community and society. Both research and
administrative data show that investment in basic
social services for children is a key element to ensure
success in alleviating their poverty. It also shows that
a minimal level of family resources to enable parents
to meet the needs of their children are required –
even when families are prepared to put their own
needs or the needs of work and other social claims
on them in second place. If there are insufficient
resources to satisfy children’s needs – however hard
parents can be shown to try – then this can cause
other obligations and relationships to crumble. This
is why UNICEF insists that “poverty reduction
begins with children”.
The World Declaration and Plan of Action adopted
by the World Summit for Children in 1990 set forth
a vision of a ‘first call’ for children by establishing
seven major and 20 supporting goals that were
quantifiable and considered achievable by 2000.
UNICEF has reported on progress towards these
goals1
. In 2000, it was found that some of the trends
in the 1980s and 1990s had deepened rather than
lifted public concern. Since 1987, the number of
people in developing countries, other than in East
Asia and the Pacific, with less than $1 a day, had
increased by 12 million a year. In many countries,
the extreme poor had been “left further behind”.
And “the evidence is compelling that the 1990s saw a
widening in the gap between rich and poor countries
as well as between rich and poor people within
countries, both in terms of incomes and social
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