What Works for Africa's Poorest Children: From measurement to action(Open Access)

While there has been substantial progress in reducing global poverty in recent years, hundreds of millions of vulnerable children remain trapped in extreme poverty. This is especially the case on the African continent, where children account for the majority and growing proportion of the population. Despite rapid economic growth in several African countries, as well as significant achievements in both development and humanitarian interventions, a staggering number of African children remain vulnerable to extreme levels of deprivation. Existing challenges notwithstanding, a number of social policies and programmes proved successful in alleviating the burden of child poverty and deprivation. In addition to being vitally important in promoting and protecting children’s rights, these social policies and programmes embody the international community’s commitment to achieve the Social Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring no one is left behind. What Works for Africa’s Poorest Children? From Measurement to Action identifies the social policies and programmes that are most effective in supporting Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable children, and examines the key features underpinning their documented success. It provides cutting edge examples on how we can identify child poverty and deprivation, analyses innovative ultra-poor child sensitive programmes, and provides new public financing and governance rights suggestions for child poverty elimination.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Multidimensional child poverty and the SDGs: From measurement to action 3. Women’s Empowerment and Impact on Child Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa 4. Driving factors of educational enrolment and attendance: Impact of the 2012 conflict 5. Delving deeper into child poverty and its drivers in sub-Saharan African: A multidimensional approach for Nigeria 6. Achieving child-centred SDGs in Ethiopia: The potential of inter-sectoral synergies 7. Weather shocks and children’s growth deprivations: Understanding and mitigating the impact 8. Child-sensitive non-contributory social protection in North Africa 9. Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme and adolescent wellbeing: Evidence from Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) 10. Social protection for livelihood sustainability in Ghana: Does LEAP cash transfer eradicate extreme poverty? 11. Child-sensitive protection programme on hunger and malnutrition in under-five year children in Nigeria 12. Can cash transfers transform child wellbeing in fragile contexts? Evidence from Liberia’s Bomi cash transfer pilot 13. Rethinking public finance for children: Monitoring for results. Evidence from Uganda 14. Children, disabilities and poverty: Enforcing the human right to inclusive education in sub-Saharan Africa 15. Ensuring children’s social protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A case Study of combatting child labour in the Copper-Cobalt Belt 16. The life of Ba’Aka children and their rights: Between the processes of poverty and deprivation

About the Author :
David Lawson is a Research Fellow, Global Poverty Research Group and Brooks World Poverty Institute; he is an author of journal articles on poverty, health and gender. He is also the Convenor of postgraduate programmes on Development Economics at the University of Manchester. He has advised the World Bank, DfID and many governments in relation to poverty and poverty dynamics. Economist with Ph.D., strong analytical skills and applied policy experience working for Ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Africa and Asia. Areas of expertise include poverty and vulnerability analysis, and the design and implementation of national development plans, in addition to various aspects of public financial management (i.e. budget formulation, execution, monitoring and reporting), and aid effectiveness. Ibrahim Kasirye is Principal Research Fellow, Economic Policy Research Centre, Uganda