Technical Note: Impact of COVID-19 on Child Poverty

The analysis reveals the number of children living in multidimensional poverty – without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water – has increased by 15 percent since the start of the pandemic.

The multidimensional poverty analysis uses data on access to education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, sanitation, and water from more than 70 countries. It highlights that around 45 percent of children were severely deprived of at least one of these critical needs in the countries analyzed before the pandemic. The situation is also likely to worsen as the pandemic continues.

The report notes that child poverty is much more than a monetary value. Although measures of monetary poverty such as household income are important, they provide only a partial view of the plight of children living in poverty. To understand the full extent of child poverty, all potential deprivations must be analysed directly. This also points to the need to implement multi-sectoral policies addressing health, education, nutrition, water and sanitation and housing deprivations to end multidimensional poverty.