Getting Childhood Poverty on the Agenda

The Young Lives team in Ethiopia arranged for the national television chat show, MEET, to host a discussion on the state of childhood poverty in Ethiopia and possible responses. Taking part in the discussion were Dr. Tassew Woldehana, an economist from the Young Lives team, John Graham, the director of Save the Children UK in Ethiopia and Tirusew Tefera, a professor in psychology from the University of Addis Ababa. The discussion set out to look at the issue of childhood poverty from the three specialist perspectives of the panellists, namely, economics, policy and child rights and psychological development.

What do we mean when we talk about childhood poverty? Why is it an important issue?

John Graham: Ethiopia is, as we all know, a very poor country and it also has a high proportion of children in its population, almost 50 per cent. In fact, Ethiopia has one of the highest numbers of children living in poverty in the entire world. Therefore, while there is a lot of talk right now about the new poverty reduction strategy, we must make sure there is special attention paid to child poverty. When you experience poverty as a child, the effects stay with you because it affects your mental and physical development. So, for example, in Ethiopia, there is a 67 per cent of rate of stunting amongst children and deprivation of food at a very early age can result in mental disabilities. So, this type of poverty at a very early age then prevents those children from growing into fully functioning adults who can contribute to society. This is why we call childhood poverty a time bomb because you experience the poverty when you are growing up the impact lives on for decades after that. And that is why it's so important that we focus much more on attacking poverty at the level of the child.

Dr. Tassew: Poverty has many dimensions. The first relates to material deprivation, which is measured in terms of the amount of energy an individual or a child is taking per day; whether or not it is enough for the child or the adult to survive. A person who is not able to generate enough income to cover food expenses and some essential non-food expenditure is considered poor.

But, it is not only the relationship between income and consumption that determines the well being of a child. Another aspect of childhood poverty is the level of attention given to the child. How well is the child developing? What is he achieving in school? Is he malnourished? Is he stunted, and wasted? So, the second dimension focuses on investment in the child's development to ensure that she or he grows into a fully functioning adult.

The third dimension when we think about poverty is the ability of the child's household to survive a shock. Even if the household has enough to eat at the moment, what will happen if there is a drought or a national economic crisis? Could a household and the children who live there survive such a shock? If not, the household could be considered poor. In Ethiopia, the problems with drought mean that children who are doing well may suddenly fall into poverty and be at risk.

In the Ethiopian context, tackling the problems of child development and household vulnerability to shocks is difficult, even our success dealing with simple material deprivation is questionable. A lot of people, around 44.2 per cent of the population in Ethiopia are living in absolute poverty: they do not have enough to cover their daily calorie requirement. In the area of education, the primary completion rate is very low: instead of going to school, children are working. That means they are disinvesting themselves. If they are in school, then they are investing in themselves to bring future growth in the country.

How is a child's psychological development linked to poverty?

Prof. Tirusew: Childhood poverty means deprivation of basic needs. As well as food, shelter and protection, there is the psychosocial component, which is critical for full development of the child. Parents who are stricken by poverty may not be able to give the level and quality of parenting necessary. Parents who are facing lots of stress and strain might not give the necessary care and attention to their children. There might be little interaction between parents and children. Interaction is crucial in the formative years and is the foundation of subsequent human development. If there is no interaction or no quality interaction that means there is no development in terms of cognitive development, in terms of socio-emotional development, in terms of all aspects of the child's development.

As well as poor or non-existent interaction with parents, early childhood education between the ages of 3 and 6 is also important. Children who are come from poor families or live in rural areas may not have access to pre-schools. In our country, as you know, the pre-schools tend to be in urban areas. Most of them are in Addis and they are meant only for middle class and upper class families. When you go to the rural areas, there are no pre-schools, only the traditional pre-school establishments, such as the priests' school and the Koranic school. We have that there is a need for immediate intervention, probably by upgrading the traditional pre-schools establishments in rural areas because they are cost-effective and are easily accessible. Children who have access to early childhood education will be better students and interact more successfully with their peers. Our own studies over the last 12 years have confirmed this. Also, children who experience quality care and development in early childhood are less likely to drop out of school or work as child labourers.

Is child labour a serious problem in Ethiopa?

Dr. Tassew: Yes, especially in rural areas, where from the age of seven are herding the cattle. That is a child labour. Instead of going to school they are doing heavy agricultural work even at the age of ten, and below fifteen, children are involved in farming. Children are involved harvesting and weeding. Some children even do the ploughing, which is really heavy work. .

Children's work brings short-term economic benefits for the family. If the children are not involved in farming, then the farm income might fall and the family could become poor. But, in the long run, children and their families lose out. If they go to school, then they give up certain amount of income now but in the future they will earn more and be better able to support the family. It is a dilemma for most of the farmers who are poor. They cannot support themselves now and so and they have to send their children to work. The average income of the Ethiopian household is around 140 USD according to the 1999-2000 estimate. That is just the bare minimum to just cover basic essential food and non-food items given the living conditions....

John Graham: I think, on the issue of child labour, we should take a child-rights approach. Practically speaking, children are going to be involved in taking care of the animals in the household in rural areas, so we need to focus on whether this leads to them being deprived of their rights or not. Are they being deprived of their right to an education? Are they being deprived of their right to good health through doing work that is too heavy for their age and for their size? So, if children are going to school in the morning and taking care of the goats in the afternoon, we don't see that as a problem because that is a nice balanced life and they are expected to contribute to their household. That is the tradition here and you shouldn't try and change those traditions. But, if a child is not being allowed to go to school because they are taking care of the family's goats all the time, then we would say that their work is leading to a deprivation of rights. We need to work with communities to change this. We've worked with communities in the Somali region to encourage them to send their children to school. Especially girls and the primary enrolment rate has gone up from 10 per cent of children to 40 per cent.

How does Young Lives contribute to addressing the issue of childhood poverty?

Dr. Tassew: Young Lives is a research project that is tracking 2000 children over fifteen years to find out more about the barriers to children's development and how can we better overcome these barriers both through projects and through the policy. The children have been selected from 20 sites in five regions, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and Addis Ababa. From one sentinel site, we select hundred children. And there are four in Amhara, and four in Tigray, and also four in Oromia including Addis Ababa. In total, we have twenty sentinel sites composed of 2000 children, and we will follow them for the next fifteen years. We go every three years to the children, to that household. We follow the same children for fifteen years. The objective of this study is to explore what the reasons for child poverty are, apart from lack of income, apart from schooling? What other social factors are contributing for child poverty? For example, one of the things that we haven't mentioned here is the social capital. People have relationships with their neighbours, with their work groups, with their community leaders. And that is one way of securing or fulfilling certain needs when they are in need. So what are the social capitals that protect children from poverty?

What should NGOs, such as Save the Children UK, play in ensuring in investment in children?

John Graham: You need to deal with the immediate and the long term. In the immediate, we have 11.4 million people now, the majority of whom are children who need basic assistance just to survive in Ethiopia because of the drought. So, we are concentrating a lot of our efforts on trying to respond to that. But the reality is that none of us wants these things to reoccur, and that means investment in long term food security and also health and education. Droughts are going to happen in the future, so we must ensure that people have sufficient income and capacity to survive, with or without outside help.

Thinking of the long term, the Ethiopian government invests about 22 per cent of the overall national budget in basic services- essentially health and education. By World Bank standards, by the standards set for developing countries as well as developed countries, that is a very reasonable amount to invest. So the Ethiopian government in terms of basic services is investing a reasonable amount of their overall expenditure, but, it just isn't enough. As a result, you have an education system where only 50 to 60 per cent of children get a basic education and in some regions, it is only 10 per cent. The poorest half of the population have very little access to any kind of formal health care. This means that even though Ethiopia itself is investing in these areas, there is not enough money to be able to meet the needs. This is why we say there is an international responsibility for that as well. We are pleased with the Ethiopian government's investment in this. We think there's got to be more donor investment in those same things.

Could policies be improved in Ethiopia with regard to children?

Dr. Tassew: In my opinion, the Ethiopia policy on education is the right one. It focuses mainly on primary education where it can have the maximum impact on human capital investment. If children are the future of this country, we need to build primary schools and provide incentives to parents to send their children. This is because of the fact that in education (particularly primary education) the social benefit is greater than the private benefit. This justifies for a subsidy in primary education.

But, although the policies are right, we have problems when it comes to implementation. We have a capacity problem - do we have the capacity to execute ambitious plans? The other problem is finance. We have limited resources to finance primary education all such a big country. Successful implementation will take some time.

Prof. Tirusew: Policy focuses on primary education but neglects early childhood development. There is a big global movement pushing for early childhood development because it is the foundation for primary education. 38 per cent of children enrolled in primary education drop out before they reach Grade 3. Why is that? I would argue it is related to the level of attention to the child's development in the first 6 years of life and maybe the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs should be involved in promoting the importance of the quality home life for children. The Ministry of Education should also play a leading role in early childhood education. NGOs, the community, and other organisations have a role to play in promoting early childhood education, but the lead should come from the government.

Investment in children is very important for the country's future growth. So, when a family invests in children, they eventually benefit from a child who earns more. But education is beyond that, beyond just private benefit. It also has some social or public benefit. When parents invest in their children they also benefit society. So, if they benefit society through their investment, they will not get the full benefit of their investment, for themselves. Therefore, there should be some public organisation who should finance that investment in children. It is not just the responsibility of parents. It should be also the responsibility of a public organisation, such as the government.

How is the current drought in Ethiopia affecting children?

John Graham: Emergencies such as the drought make it difficult to focus on longer-term issues. As a result of the drought, we see children not being able to go to school in various areas because they are too hungry, they are too weak. School is not a priority. In pastoral areas, people are moving to try to find some kind of fodder for their animals. So the immediate impact of this type of emergency is that undermines all of your other longer-term development efforts, such as encouraging families to send children to school.

You have to think about the longer-term even when you are dealing with an immediate crisis. We have to think about how we can turn a relief operation into a development operation that will benefit communities beyond the crisis. What can be done to avoid emergencies having such a devastating impact on all aspects of a child's life? It is very discouraging that all of the development efforts that have been going on for so long can be almost wiped out overnight by a serious emergency like this. In some countries where food security is not a problem, there is much more emphasis on other aspects of child development. In Ethiopia, unfortunately we are still focussed first and foremost on getting people enough food so that children can survive and can grow up healthy, so that then they can be functional adults.

Are we too preoccupied with immediate concerns such as the drought and the AIDS crisis to effectively tackle all dimensions of child poverty?

Prof. Tirusew: Yes, I think so. But we can work on the developmental aspect of children, alongside emergency interventions. Children need to be stimulated wherever they are, even if they are in an emergency situation. At the same time, alongside poverty alleviation, you can empower parents to have better parenting skills and to interact more effectively with their children. This aspect is often neglected by most international organisations because it enables the child to compete and live a better quality of life in the future.

Does Save the Children neglect early childhood development in their emergency programmes?
John Graham: In fact, part of the 40 million dollars we have raised is specifically to deal with psycho-social issues with children.

Prof. Tirusew: Too little too late?

John Graham: True. But some of our partners like Save the Children-Denmark, for example, and Save the Children- Sweden have a very large component that looks at the psycho-social needs. If you have children who are underfed, who are not given proper care, and who will carry the impact of those experiences with them forever, you have to deal with this. Of course, we have to meet the immediate needs, we can't stand by and let people starve to death. But, at the same time, we have to keep the long term in sight. The Young Lives research will help us to understand these issues more.

How will Young Lives help the government to devise more effective policy in the future?

John Graham: The project will identify particular areas, gaps in children's development which need to be filled, and we think that the early childhood aspect is extremely important. We are studying children who were born in 2000, so that they are at that early childhood point now. What is going to be the impact on children who don't have a stable home environment in comparison to those who do? What about those children who are getting proper nutrition versus those who don't?

We've already been looking at best practice. For example, when the child is weaned, what food do they receive and what impact does it have on them? Other studies have already shown that there is a drastic decline in the nutritional status of children immediately after they leave the breast, and the very poorest rural women are the ones who have to stop breastfeeding the earliest because they have to start going back to work to be able to do other things to support the whole family.