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CHIP Activities
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CHIP research in China examines
- How poverty affects urban children and young people in the immediate and longer-term
- Which social security policies and programmes and what kinds of community and household responses are most effective in helping reduce childhood poverty among vulnerable groups in poor urban areas
- What kinds of policy changes would lead to more effective safety nets for vulnerable families and their children
It focuses on the following major disadvantaged groups: migrant families; workers laid-off from state-owned enterprises; and families who have lost access to farm land due to urbanisation.
Research activities included:
- Literature Review. A literature review entitled “Urban Poverty, Disadvantaged Children and Social Protection”, published in English and Chinese.
- Primary Research in selected poor areas of three cities:
Fushun, Liaoning Province, North-east China; an area which has experienced substantial de-industrialisation with the reform and closure of many state-owned enterprises, leading to many laid-off (xiagang) workers;
Hefei, Anhui Province, East-Central China; capital of a poor, mainly agricultural province with a large in-migrant population.
Chongqing, Western China; one of China's largest mega-cities, which has experienced rapid urbanisation and economic growth. This has resulted in much in-migration from rural areas and peri-urban farmers losing land and employment opportunities during urbanization, creating potential poverty traps.
Research involved a survey of 900 households, 300 households per location, selected to represent priority urban poverty groups (migrants, families with laid off workers and families who have lost land through industrialisation) with a comparison group of average-income households. It also involved focus group discussions, and individual interviews with adults and young people from poor households, and interviews with district and local-level government representatives, members of women's and youth organisations, community leaders and practitioners working in the study locations - teachers, health workers etc.
Key Findings
- Most poor urban residents with local hukou (household registration) who have been laid off and cannot find work are primarily dependent on government aid for their main source of income. By contrast, rural migrants are either self employed or in some form of temporary waged work that does not provide a reasonable standard of living. Neither group can access employment based health insurance and pension schemes which increases their vulnerability.
- 98 per cent of children from poor urban families are accessing education, and the majority of poor families said they would not let poverty prevent their children from attending school or entering higher education. However, poverty limits the type of investment that poor families make in children’s education: for example, 73 per cent of poor families did not invest in other education programmes such as private tuition outside school hours. Rural urban migrants face a particularly heavy financial burden - the additional fees they must pay for their children to attend urban schools. This leads to most school aged children of migrants being left behind in rural locations.
- Only 45 per cent of poor urban families provided their children with ‘user pays’ vaccinations that were not covered by the state funded immunisation plan.
- While nearly 60 per cent of surveyed families had some awareness of the government funded re employment policy, only little more than 10 per cent had been trained for re employment. The survey found that in times of need, urban poor families relied mainly on assistance from relatives, friends and neighbourhood committees, but migrant families were less likely to receive such assistance. Around 60 per cent of urban households were receiving Minimum Living Standard Security Allowance (MLSSA).
- To reduce urban childhood poverty the report recommends:
- increasing parents’ ability to guarantee a better current standard of living through enhanced retraining opportunities, and business development support and increasing the minimum wage.
- providing good quality education for all children. This requires removing cost barriers to education, and would eliminate the need for extra tuition.
- ensuring that the health insurance system involves all elements of the social security system, to meet the health-related needs of all poverty-affected children.
- improving migrant families’ access to government and community assistance by granting them equal access to urban services as long-term urban residents; making it easier to apply for urban registration would contribute to this.
See CHIP Report 14 - Poverty Among Children in Urban China: A survey of poverty-affected families in three cities for further detail.
From research to policy
This research was carried out in collaboration with the Department of Social Relief of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and aimed to inform development of policy and practice on the Minimum Living Standard Allowance and other social benefits for poor households. Seminars and meetings have been held to discuss findings at national, provincial and community (street office) level and with international donors in Beijing.
Partners
The research was coordinated by Save the Children (UK) in Beijing working in collaboration with: the Institute of Sociology at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, the Department of Sociology at Anhui University and the Institute of Sociology at Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences. In each city, researchers worked in collaboration with relevant local government departments.
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Photo: Mitchell Sedgwick
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CHIP research in India examined:
- the evidence for and factors underpinning intergenerational poverty cycles
- the role of gender-and caste-based discrimination in maintaining poverty cycles
- the contribution of Government of India and Government of Rajasthan and civil society interventions, and of social relations to breaking intergenerational poverty cycles
This research focused on rural areas, where the vast majority of the population live and where poverty is more severe than in urban areas.
Research activities involved:
Literature review. CHIP Report 2, a review of existing research and knowledge on childhood poverty and wellbeing in India, with a specific focus on Rajasthan, was published in July 2004.
Primary research in four villages in two districts of the state of Rajasthan, chosen to contrast childhood poverty in areas of severe long-term poverty, and transient, mainly drought-related, poverty. These 2 areas also provided insights into specific issues facing tribal and scheduled (low) caste children. The research involved a household survey, focus group discussions, individual life histories and case studies and background information about social change in the four communities.
Key findings
- Drought and environmental deterioration have significantly undermined livelihoods and exacerbated poverty in Rajasthan. Responses which may contribute to poverty cycles include pressures on children to work, undermining their education and health.
- Children from 10-15 per cent of households had migrated for work, usually with parents, but sometimes alone. Income from migrant children's work constituted between 18 and 45 per cent of the poorest households' income.
- Indebtedness, related to drought-related pressures and social obligations (eg marriages, death feasts) affected over 80 per cent of households, and was a major factor leading to intergenerational poverty cycles.
- At present national and state development programmes in health, education and livelihoods are not fulfilling their potential to help break poverty cycles. This reflects under-resourcing, the low status of the (mostly) women with responsibility for implementing these programmes, and limited accountability of staff to the people they are intended to serve. As a result core education, health and nutrition programmes are of variable quality and not all available on a reliable basis in the areas studied.
See CHIP Report 16: Understanding Childhood Poverty in Rajasthan for further detail.
Dissemination and policy engagement
Findings were presented to policy makers, NGO and media representatives, donors and others via seminars and public meetings in Rajasthan and to selected donors in Delhi.
Partners
The research was carried out by a team of researchers from the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (IDSJ) in collaboration with Save the Children (UK).
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Research
The research in Kyrgyzstan explored the following key issues:
- How poverty affects children and young people in Kyrgyzstan .
- The key reasons why so many children live in poverty.
- How key livelihood or coping strategies affect child wellbeing and their immediate and possible long-term effects.
- How childhood poverty and children's future life chance vary among different parts of the country and social groups.
- Evidence that intergenerational poverty cycles are taking place or developing and which groups of children are particularly at risk.
- Role of social and economic policies in causing and helping to tackle childhood poverty.
Research Activities involved:
Literature Review. CHIP Report 1 'Childhood Poverty in Kyrgyzstan: Initial Literature Review', drawing on government, donor and NGO sources was published in March 2004. Click here for the Russian version.
Primary Research. A survey of 1100 poor and non-poor households took place in March 2003. It aimed to obtain a comprehensive, quantified, picture of childhood poverty and family wellbeing in pastoral, agricultural, de-industrialising and urban areas throughout Kyrgyzstan. Qualitative research in three rural and two urban communities focused on the key reasons underlying poverty and impoverishment, the extent to which poverty cycles are developing, the strategies that people have used to try to escape poverty, and the impacts on children. It involved in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with children and young people, and interviews with parents and community leaders.
Click here to view children's drawings about wealth and poverty .
Key Findings
- Children in single-parent families and in families where both parents are under 30 are at greatest risk of poverty. This partly reflects the limited access to land of families with children born since 1996 (when land shares were distributed) and traditional inheritance patterns which favour youngest sons.
- 11 per cent of children surveyed aged 7 to 17 were involved in some form of work. Throughout the year around 14 per cent of children miss school to work though this can rise to 70 per cent at peak seasons in agricultural communities. Poorer children are at greater risk of missing school due to illness than their better-off counterparts who can afford medicine and can keep homes warmer.
- There is a strong risk of intergenerational poverty cycles developing. The following groups of families are particularly at risk: young families with limited assets, those in areas with few economic opportunities who cannot migrate, families without a breadwinner or where the breadwinner has limited education, large families and those dependent on state support. Within these categories, children who miss education due to work or whose health is harmed by work and girls who are kidnapped for marriage, are at particular risk of future poverty.
- Microfinance programmes - seen as an important answer to poverty - are not reaching the poorest people. Lengthening loan terms, reducing interest rates and reducing the documentation required to obtain credit would all help. More broadly, ensuring that people are informed of their entitlements (eg benefits) and opportunities (eg development programmes) and that social protection benefits reach intended recipients would help prevent poverty undermining children's life chances.
For further detail, see CHIP Report 15: A Generation at Risk? Childhood Poverty in Kyrgyzstan in English, and CHIP Отчет № 15 Поколение в опасности?! Детская бедность в Кыргызстане in Russian.
Analysis of Statistical Data
Using data from the Kyrgyzstan Poverty Monitoring Survey, the Family Budget Survey and the Demographic and Health Survey, researchers examined trends in childhood poverty in Kyrgyzstan. They found that:
- Children, particularly those under 7, are more likely than the population as a whole to live in poverty and are significantly more likely to live in chronic poverty - to be poor for four or more consecutive years. This is particularly the case in Naryn oblast, where 87 per cent of children were chronically poor in 2001.
- Households with many children and single parent households are particularly likely to be chronically poor. However, around 10 per cent of children do move in or out of poverty each year.
- One positive outcome of poverty reduction and health reform measures is that the proportion of people who cannot access health services due to poverty has fallen.
This work research was carried out in collaboration with the Department of Social Statistics, University of Southampton, UK and was co-supported by the British Academy.
See CHIP Report 11: The Dynamics of Child Poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic for further detail. This report will also be available in Russian shortly.
From research to policy
Interested stakeholders in government, NGOs and donor agencies were invited to comment on research plans, and the team kept participants up to date with interim findings. Once the research was complete, the team presented findings to government, NGOs and donors in Bishkek (the capital) and fed results back to participating communities and local authorities. The CHIP team are also seeking print and radio coverage for the research findings.
Film- Window and Two Sisters - Different Paths. The team commissioned a short film about childhood poverty. It concentrates on three characters - Bakyt, the teenage son of a woman disabled in an accident who works in open-caste mines to support the family, and Burulai, and her sister (the narrator), migrants to Bishkek. 12 year old Burulai works in various jobs to support her family while her sister goes to school. The film has been shown on national television, and in numerous seminars and presentations. Three short trailers for the film were also shown on television, timed to coincide with the review of the national development policy - the Comprehensive Development Framework.
Click here to view film clips
Partners
A team of sociologists from the American University - Central Asia led the research and worked with Save the Children UK in Kyrgyzstan to disseminate findings.
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Research
CHIP research in Mongolia focuses on migration, an important strategy of many families for coping with poverty. It examines the impact of migration on children's education, and their prospects of getting out of poverty, looking both at children who migrate and those left behind when other family or community members migrate. In particular, it asked:
- How and why children migrate
- Who moves and who does not, and who benefits and who does not
- Whether children who migrate get better access to a good education, and remaining in a rural area with high out-migration affects children 's educational opportunities
- Whether other effects of migration on the child and his/her family offset more positive experiences of education,
- What effect on young people's opportunities migrating as a child has
- How children's educational opportunities are affected by policies at all levels
Research activities involved
Primary research in eight locations in different parts of the country and with different migration characteristics including urban areas of high in-migration (the capital, a major city and two larger towns that attract migrants) and rural areas of high out-migration (3 soum centres and a remote aimag centre). A survey of 950 households developed a quantitative picture of:
- households' experience of rural-urban migration since 1998 (5 years previously).
- children's access to a good education - particularly for poor households. For migrant households, this includes a picture of perceived differences in education as a result of migration.
More contextual, qualitative research explored experiences and opinions. This involved focus group discussions with migrant and non-migrant children and parents, individual interviews with migrants and key informants and life histories of young people who migrated and of those left behind in a rural area.
Key findings
- Giving children a better education, was one of the most important reasons for nearly one-third (31 per cent) of families moving to urban areas, second only to moving to look for work.
- However, migrant children are more than three times more likely to be out of school than long-term resident children. 11.9 per cent of migrant children are out of school, while 3.6 per cent of long-term urban resident children do not attend. Migrant children are four times more likely to drop out: 8.9 per cent have dropped out compared with only 2.2 per cent of long-term urban resident children. The most important reasons for non-attendance and drop out are urban schools not accepting migrant children, the lack of a nearby school, the need to look after livestock and the costs of education. The registration fee charged to migrant children until September 2003 seems to have exacerbated this situation.
- High levels of out-migration appear to be linked to reducing educational opportunities for those left behind; declining populations mean declining school budgets. The declining quality of education means some parents and children believe that caring for livestock is more useful for children (especially boys) than education.
- Key recommendations include:
- a review of budget allocation methods for education to ensure adequate resources for remote rural and overcrowded peri-urban areas;
- new models for rural education should be considered;
- the extent of demand for education in urban areas must be recognised.
- Non-formal education may also be needed to ensure the most disadvantaged children have access to schooling.
- A strong emphasis on regional poverty reduction and development is needed to reduce overall rates of migration.
For further detail see CHIP Report 17 and the Report Summary Migrating for More
From research to policy
The team involved interested stakeholders in government, donor agencies, NGOs and research institutes in the initial research conceptualisation and design, which started the process of debate about the issues involved and about policy affecting children and migration. Findings will be presented to these stakeholders and others in a seminar in Ulaanbaatar. Interviews with key informants at soum, aimag and Ministry levels have also raised concern about education and migration issues. As well as aiming to inform policy, it is hoped that research findings will underpin Save the Children and other NGOs' practical action designed to tackle different aspects of childhood poverty.
Partners
A team of sociologists from the Department of Sociology at the National University of Mongolia, the Ider Institute and the Academy of Sociology, all in Ulaanbaatar worked with Save the Children on this research.
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