Analysing Multidimensional Child Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings Using an International Comparative Approach

This study provides with a first indication on the number of multidimensionally poor children in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents a methodology measuring multidimensional child deprivation within and across countries, and it is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 1 focusing on multidimensional poverty by age and gender. Using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) methodology, the study finds that 67% or 247 million children are multidimensionally poor in the thirty sub-Saharan African countries included in the analysis. Multidimensional poverty is defined as missing two to five aspects of basic child well-being captured by dimensions anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely nutrition, health, education, information, water, sanitation, and housing. The analysis also predicts the multidimensional child poverty rates for the whole sub-Saharan African region estimating 64% or 291 million children to be multidimensionally poor. In comparison, monetary poverty rates measured as less than USD 1.25 PPP per capita spending a day and weighted by the child population size finds 48% poor children. The results of this study highlight the extent of multidimensional poverty among children in sub-Saharan Africa and the need for children to have a specific poverty measure in their own right.