Poverty and violations of children’s right to protection in low- and middle-income countries: A review of the evidence

This report explores the relationships between poverty and violence against children. The work contributes to an existing debate on the underlying causes of violence against children. The two-year programme is to be carried out by ODI, the Overseas Development Institute, and the Oak Foundation, of which this article is the first output.

This report – the first output of the programme – has two main objectives:

1. To examine how far and in what ways poverty contributes to violations of children’s rights to protection in four key areas – child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children – and thus to clarify the significance of poverty as an underlying or risk factor for these different violations of children’s protection rights; and

2. To assess the strength of evidence concerning the relationship between poverty and child marriage, sexual and physical violence against children and inadequate care of children, and thus to identify knowledge gaps.