CHILDHOOD POVERTY

I did have good luck in getting one of my sources out of the country just today. We have just exchanged email address today so hopefully I will be able to share information next week with you about Children and their Families in Hungary.

I am posting today the podcast alternative: Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP)

CHIP is a organization that provide research about children in poverty. In this issue they research four countries. China, India, Kyrgyzatan, and Mongaila. They publicize information to make the government and politician aware of the child poverty exciting in their counties. I am sharing information that I found important about this website.

CHIP
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre

CHIP - Knowledge for Tackling Childhood Poverty

The crisis of childhood poverty

Over 600 million children world-wide live in absolute poverty - an estimated 1 in 4. In many countries, rates are much higher with over 60 percent of children living in households with incomes below international poverty lines. Over 10 million children under five still die every year from preventable diseases - the vast majority of them in developing countries. As one of the most powerless groups in society, children often bear the physical and emotional costs of poverty.  

Poverty denies opportunities to people of all ages. Lost opportunities in childhood cannot always be regained later - childhood is a one-off window of opportunity and development. Poverty experienced by children, even over short periods, can affect the rest of their lives. Malnutrition in early childhood, for example, can lead to life-long learning difficulties and poor health.

Today's poor children are all too often tomorrow's poor parents. Poverty can be passed on from generation to generation affecting the long-term health, wellbeing and productivity of families and of society as a whole. Tackling childhood poverty is therefore critical for eradicating poverty and injustice world-wide.

The international community has committed itself to meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This includes halving poverty rates, cutting by two-thirds the deaths of children under five and ensuring that all children in the world complete at least primary education. Already progress is slower than is needed - only substantial investment in children now will enable this vital reduction in different forms of childhood poverty to be achieved.

About this website

While the funded phase of the CHIP program is now over, this website is intended to be a resource for policy makers, practitioners and activists concerned about childhood poverty. It contains policy briefings, research reports, photos, case studies and links on a wide range of issues related to childhood poverty, all of which can be accessed via the menus at the left and bottom of each page. This website will continue to exist until at least 2007.

CHIP was funded by the UK Department for International Development, Save the Children and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre.

CHIP Rationale

CHIP aims to fill some of the gaps in knowledge about childhood poverty internationally and in partner countries, and to work with others to gain commitments to action. This web page explains some of the general gaps in knowledge about childhood poverty, and the rationale for the CHIP program.

·         Knowledge varies substantially between countries. In some countries, very little is known. There may be statistics showing the number of families in poverty or percentage of children undernourished. But what poverty means for families - and how the ways they cope affect children may not be understood. In other countries, more is known overall, but information about children in particular groups - such as among disadvantaged minorities or in isolated areas - is lacking. Elsewhere, there may be good statistical information but this is not linked to an analysis of the trends and policies underlying child wellbeing. CHIP research sought to address specific knowledge gaps on children in poverty.

·         Research focuses on specific aspects of childhood and is rarely well linked together. Internationally, children and childhood have attracted much research. However, this research has tended to focus on particular areas of education, health, psychology, or on particular groups of children such a street children or child workers. Often this knowledge is not brought together. It tends to focus on the nature of problems faced by children in poverty and rarely links this to wider knowledge about the causes of poverty. This means that opportunities for using this knowledge to tackle problems of children in poverty are often missed.

·         Impacts of key development policies on children are poorly understood or documented. The debate continues as to which policies or sets of policies are most effective in reducing poverty overall. However, even policies that reduce poverty overall may not help poor children, and in some cases make their situation worse. We need a clearer understanding of where, when and how different kinds of development policies improve or worsen the situation of children in poverty. Though much is known about how particular sector policies, such as health, education or social security policy, can improve the situation of children, knowledge about the most effective combinations of social and economic policies is limited.

·         Little is known about how children can be trapped in poverty cycles and what can help them escape. For example, under what circumstances does working in childhood trap children in poverty, and when does it provide useful skills for the future? What kinds of education best help children escape poverty? What sorts of economic and social policies are most helpful for preventing poverty being passed between generations? Answers to these questions are critical for breaking poverty cycles permanently. CHIP has started to answer some of these questions, though more context-specific knowledge is needed.

·         The broader policy environments that best promote child wellbeing are poorly understood. What kinds of political environments tend to reduce poverty among families and children? What kinds of relationships between aid-giving and receiving countries promote child wellbeing?

     

Mongolia

Young boys fetching water at sunset

Young boys fetching water at sunset from one of the soum centre’s tapstands,  Khalkhgol, Dornod Aimag.
Children usually fetch water for households in rural areas like Khalkhgol and some are paid by their neighbours for the service.  Some children spend the little money they earn on sweets and games, but some use it to support their families to buy basic necessities like flour and clothes.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

 

Kyrgyzatan

Mother with baby in their home

This young mother lives in the house shown in this photograph with her 6-month-old daughter (pictured), her 9-year-old son and her partner. The house, however, does not belong to them - their relatives have given it to them temporarily. Like many other young families in Kyrgyzstan, they find the cost of buying or building a house of their own too high.
There are two rooms in this house at present - the family lives in one of them, while using the other for storage. It is often cold in the living room as they can only afford to heat it with their metal stove. Because of this, the baby catches cold easily.
According to CHIP research, cutting down on heating in winter is a common money-saving strategy among poorer families in Kyrgyzstan. As a consequence, though, a high percentage of children catch cold or 'flu in winter - and, for older children, this means they are more likely to miss school in winter.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team




India
Boy selling ice ceam in India


China

Babies in China