Economic growth, poverty and children

Abstract

This paper discusses the different dimensions of poverty, with a particular focus on non-monetary aspects, and describes the limitations and inaccuracies inherent in the US$ 1 a day poverty line now widely used in cross-country comparisons. It highlights how little attention is given to the aspects of poverty that most affect children and explains why addressing these issues is an effective approach to poverty reduction. The authors discuss why economic growth during the 1990s failed to produce the hoped-for decline in the incidence of poverty in most nations and report, for example, on the existence of disparities as well as on the advantages of extending provision of basic services to all. Whilst on the one hand, economic growth has not necessarily reduced the incidence of (monetary and non-monetary) poverty, on the other, reductions in poverty have been achieved in some cases without waiting for economic growth. Countries with comparable per capita incomes, for instance, can show considerable variation in under-five mortality rates.