Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
The chapter analyses children’s multidimensional deprivation in Iran in 2009 and explores inequalities in different regions. The study focused on outcome indicators, with the level of analysis focusing on the individual child as well as the household. A child rights approach is applied to define dimensions of children’s deprivation. Six dimensions are examined related to education, shelter, water and sanitation, child labour, child marriage and information; under the three broad categories of rights, that is, provision, protection and participation. A dual cut-off identification strategy is applied and the thresholds are defined to establish three mutually exclusive deprivation levels (deprived, moderately deprived. The analysis shows that rural children have the highest deprivation rates under all dimensions and girls are more deprived than boys under education and labour. Some of the provinces with majority ethnic population have higher deprivation rates than the country’s average, and Sistan & Baluchistan is the most deprived province. Moderate deprivation is higher than deprivation rate under all dimensions except for child labour, i.e. the ratio of working children who are also out of school is higher than those who work and still attend school.
Haiti has long been a beacon of hope for poor and oppressed peoples of the world. It was the first country to have a successful slave-led revolution which resulted in independence. At the time of the revolution, Haiti was one of the most productive and wealthiest countries on the planet. Since independence, however, it has been plagued by poverty, political unrest and natural disasters. The earthquake of January 2010 struck a country that was already one of the poorest in the world. This chapter shows that in the years before the earthquake hardly any progress was made in reducing child poverty and deprivation in Haiti. The work represents the first ever study of child poverty in the country, and its findings are disheartening, since it was hoped the benefits of lifting international sanctions on Haiti would be manifested most apparently in positive outcomes for children.
Tanzania has traditionally been an egalitarian society. However, the debt crisis of the 1980s and the ensuing adjustment policies period proved detrimental to equity. The economic recovery recently enjoyed by Tanzania has not resulted in a significant reduction of income poverty. While there has been progress in some social indicators it has been unconscionably slow for many dimensions of well-being. These observations call for a deeper analysis of the characteristics of poverty and disparities, moving beyond income poverty and income distribution. Thus, this chapter approaches the issue from the perspective of child poverty and its characteristics. Using a multidimensional approach, the analysis is centered on the depth and severity of child poverty and on the changes between 1999 and 2004/5. The sensitivity analysis indicates the estimation of child poverty is robust to changes in thresholds of various dimensions of deprivation. The analysis of the evidence gives indications on how to pursue effective policies that could improve the situation of children, especially girls, not only in education and nutrition but in the other dimensions as well.
Following widespread acknowledgement that children deserve a child-focused perspective in the development and poverty reduction process worldwide, the construction and use of child poverty approaches has received increasing attention over the last decade. This chapter uses a multidimensional and child-specific approach for the measurement of child poverty in Vietnam. Conceptually, this chapter explicitly illustrates the choices and decisions inherent to constructing a sound and solid approach. Although they have strong implications for concurrent outcomes, they are often not explicitly discussed. Such choices include the formulation of the rationale and purpose of the approach, the establishment of its conceptual framework and selection of domains and indicators. Empirically, findings highlight that water and sanitation, leisure and shelter as the most pressing areas for children in Vietnam, and that poverty referring to shelter and water and sanitation are most closely related. Furthermore, there are large differences between children living in urban and rural areas, and between children living in different regions. The direction of regional disparities might differ, however, depending on the indicator or domain under consideration. In sum, we consider the multidimensional child poverty approach for Vietnam to be an important tool for policy making and academic research. It fills a knowledge gap in Vietnam and sets an example for the development of other country-specific child poverty approaches.
A multidimensional approach to poverty has more uses than simply summarizing poverty in a single index or for comparing deprivation rates between dimensions. Using the Republic of Congo as an illustration, we argue that the information embedded in such an approach can additionally be used to generate better poverty profiles. In this chapter we use information on the prevalence of multiple deprivations at the level of the child to analyze to what extent children suffering from multiple deprivations have different characteristics and problems than children suffering from only one deprivation or none at all. We thereby focus on children in school going age and deprivation patterns in the dimensions financial resources, education and work. The resulting poverty profile helps identifying commonalities and differences between subgroups of vulnerable children among a larger and much more heterogeneous group of deprived children. A better diagnostic, in turn, gives more direction for subsequent in depth problem analyses and policy making processes.
There are critical times in a child’s life where failure to intervene can have irreversible impacts on their capabilities and quality of life. Although protecting the rights of all children and reducing inequities in human development are acknowledged needs, strong evidence on how to do so is sparse. It is against this backdrop that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) initiated, in 2007, the Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities. This Study now spans 50+ countries in Africa, Asia, CEE/CIS, Latin America and the Middle East. This chapter describes the progress made by this coordinated international effort to highlight the nature and extent of multidimensional child poverty, and explores concrete strategies on how national policies can address poverty and disparities. The analysis looks at why UNICEF launched this effort; what concerns, considerations and principles have shaped it; and analyses the challenges of operationalizing child poverty concepts, measures and responses across five continents. Finally, it examines what lessons this global effort can offer to the international development community and provides recommendations on the way forward.
Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, it examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional and national level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle income and poor countries. The book’s ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world’s great ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.
Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, it examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional and national level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle income and poor countries. The book’s ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world’s great ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.
Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, it examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional and national level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle income and poor countries. The book’s ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world’s great ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.
Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, it examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional and national level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle income and poor countries. The book’s ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world’s great ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.
