The Multidimensionality of Child Poverty: an Empirical Investigation on Children of Afghanistan

From the capability approach, child poverty is understood as the deprivation of basic capabilities and related achieved functionings. This paper examines multidimensional poverty among Afghan children using the Alkire and Foster method. The case of Afghanistan is particularly relevant as years of conflict aggravated by several severe droughts, political insecurity, bad governance and on going violence have significantly increased poverty in the country. The paper discusses the relevant dimensions when analysing child poverty and uses data from a survey carried out by Handicap International which contains information on dimensions of children’s wellbeing that is typically missing in standard surveys. Ten dimensions are considered in this paper: health, material deprivation, food security, care and love, social inclusion, access to schooling, freedom from economic exploitation, autonomy and mobility. Our results show that younger children and those living in rural areas are the most deprived. JEL classification: O53, I3, I32, J13 keywords: Multidimensional poverty measurement, Capability approach, Children