Policies, Standards, and Strategies

Austerity Measures threaten children and poor households: Recent Evidence in Public Expenditures from 128 Developing Countries. Working Paper

Publication year:

2011

English

Format:

pdf

Publisher:

UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund

In the wake of the food, fuel and financial shocks, a fourth wave of the global economic crisis began to sweep across developing countries in 2010: fiscal austerity. Serving as an update of earlier research by UNICEF, this working paper:

  • examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 128 developing countries, comparing the three periods of 2005-07 (pre-crisis), 2008-09 (crisis phase I: fiscal expansion) and 2010-12 (crisis phase II: fiscal contraction);
  • discusses the possible risks for social expenditures;
  • assesses the most common adjustment measures being considered by developing countries in 2010-11 and their potentially adverse impacts on vulnerable populations; and
  • summarizes a series of alternative policy options that are available to governments to expand fiscal space and ensure a Recovery for All, including children and poor households.

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