The authors review the contribution of qualitative methods to exploring concepts and experiences of well-being among children and adults living in developing countries. They provide examples illustrating the potential of these methods for gaining a holistic and contextual understanding of people's perceptions and experiences.

"Well-being" is a key concept in the study of children's lives over time, given its potential to link the objective, subjective, and inter-subjective dimensions of their experiences in ways that are holistic, contextualized and longitudinal. For this reason well-being is one of the core concepts used by Young Lives, a 15-year project (2000?2015) that follows the lives of 12,000 children growing up in the context of poverty in Ethiopia, Peru, Andhra Pradesh (India) and Vietnam  (see http://www.younglives.org.uk).

Monitoring, protecting and promoting 'well-being' are central to realisation of children's rights. Yet definitions of the concept are both variable and can appear conceptually confused. Competing research paradigms engage with the concept and its measurement, while applications of well-being in policy are equally contested. This paper outlines some of the major debates, as a starting point for reviewing three contrasting approaches to well-being: indicator-based, participatory, and longitudinal research.

At the top of the list of Millennium Development Goals is the eradication of extreme poverty. Achievement of this goal is to be indicated, in part, by a 50 percent reduction in the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. A recent UN report on progress towards realisation of the MDGs suggested that efforts in respect of this specific target have achieved only mixed success (United Nations 2007).