1. Children in the world: A statistical overview

Children in Developing Countries

Dr. Renata Serra – Fall 2009

A note of caution re: data

All statistics contain errors Data from developing countries are fewer,

contain many missing observations, and are of poorer quality than average Statistical capacity ~ degree of development

At the same time, we have to work with the data we have

Quick comparison by world regionsS Asia SSA EAsia&P

acificMENA LA&C CEE/

CISIndustr. Countr.

Tot Pop (mill.) 1,567 767 1,984 389 566 406 975

IMR U5 2007 (1990) 78 (125)

148 (186)

27 (56) 46 (79)

26 (55)

25 6 (10)

Primary enrolment 80% 64% 97% 86% 93% 93% 96%

GNI p.c. US $889 $965 $2,742 $3,666 $5,628 $5,786 38,579

Source: Unicef, State of the World Children (SOWC) 2009, Table 1

Some facts

Children represent over 1/3 of the world population…

… but up to 50% of the population in the poorest countries

Indicators of child well-being do not correlate too well with per-capita income Growth in income will not lead automatically to

improvements in the lives of children: specific policies may be needed

1. Infant mortality rates

IMRu1/u5 measures the number of children who die before reaching age 1 (or 5), per 1000 live births

IMRs are a fundamental indicator of children’s well-being and good tool for countries’ comparison

IMR are particularly high in SSA Out of the 35 countries with the worst ranking only 1 is

not from SSA (Afghanistan, which is the 2nd worst) 5 African countries have IMRU5 greater or close to 200

37 countries in the world have IMR > 100 2 are from Asia (Afghanistan and Myanmar)

Infant mortality rates (cont’d)

IMR U5 has improved in the last 20 years but much less so in SSA

Countries which have halved IMRu5 during 1990-2005 from over to under 100, include: India, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Nepal in

Asia Bolivia in LA&C and Ghana in SSA

Brazil has also halved IMRs to 30 in the same period!

2. Nutrition

Undernourishment: insufficient calories (energy) to meet minimum physiological needs. On average, >2,100 kilocalories per day per person are needed

Malnutrition/Undernutrition:inability to maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease Measured not by how much food is eaten but by

physical measurements of the body Stunted: 2 SD below average height-for-age Wasted: 2 SD below average weight-for-height Weight for age is also measured (under-weight)

Nutrition (cont’d)

Malnutrition is most often linked to lack of appropriate nutrients: Iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of malnutrition

worldwide, affecting an estimated 1.7 billion people, half of whom suffer from anemia

Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune systems of a large proportion of under-5 increasing their vulnerability to disease

Protein deficiency is also very common among poor children (‘big-bellied children’)

Child malnutrition is of high incidence in central and eastern Africa but the majority of undernourished children are found in South Asia 41% of children under-5 are underweight in SA; 24% in SSA (Table

2 UNICEF, SOWC 2009); 11% or less in the other regions

Under-weight prevalence among under-5 children in LDCs

Source: UNICEF, State of the World Children 2007, figure 2.4

3. School enrolment

Source: Figure 2.2 Unicef, SoWC 2006

Gender gap in school attendanceSSA MENA South

AEast A & Pac

LA&C CEE/ CIS

Dev Count

Prim. B 64 88 81 92 90 93 80

Prim G 61 85 77 92 91 91 77

Secn B 26 54 51 60 69* 79 48

Secn G 22 52 43 63 74* 76 43

•School attendance is always less than school enrolment and more difficult to measure•Data on East Asia & Pacific region exclude China•The last column is the average of all developing countries excluding China•* Data on secondary school gap for Latina America & Caribbean region are on enrolment not on attendance•Source: SOWC 2009, Table 5

4. Other measures of deprivation

Source: Figure 2.3 Unicef, SoWC 2006

Indicators of child protection

Indicators of child protection include data on attitude towards violence against children, child marriage, child labor and female genital cutting. See Unicef, SPWC2009, Table 9.

5. Child poverty

Poverty is multi-dimensional concept: Insufficient access to goods and services Lack of freedoms (from hunger, diseases, anxiety,

violence) Being victim of violence and exploitation

Poverty concepts may have different meanings through space and time

Income poverty is often used to make international comparisons: Absolute poverty lines are used for developing

countries ($1 a day or $2 a day) Relative poverty lines for developed countries (children

living in households with < 50% of median HH income) To know more about child poverty in the US: National

Center for Children in Poverty (http://www.nccp.org/)

Child poverty in OECD countries

Source: UnicefSoWC 2006, fig. 2.4