Despite a wide under-prioritization, the issue of child poverty has received increasing attention worldwide over the last decade. The acknowledgement in Vietnam that child-specific poverty measurement is crucial for poverty efforts directed towards children, and the current lack thereof, instigated the development of a Vietnam child poverty approach. This paper proposes a country-specific, multidimensional and outcome-based approach for the measurement of the incidence, depth and severity of child poverty. It does so at the level of the individual child using household survey data. The development of such an approach at the level of the individual child presents an appropriate alternative for or supplement to the widely used monetary poverty approach, allowing for the use of compatible analytical methods. Findings suggest that 37% of all children in Vietnam live in poverty, with the most pressing areas of deprivation being water, sanitation and leisure. We do not find evidence for a gender bias but do observe a large urban–rural divide, regional disparities and large ethnic inequalities. We argue that this tailor-made approach is a valuable new tool for policy makers and analysts in Vietnam as it enables identification and analysis of poor children, their characteristics and most pressing areas of deprivation within the country’s specific social and cultural context.

Roelen K, Gassmann F, de Neubourg C. False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional measurement tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? A widely used division between poverty measures based on conceptual underpinnings and analytical outcomes is that of monetary versus multidimensional measures. Comparisons of the use and outcomes of the two methods have shown that they predominantly provide different pictures of poverty in terms of size, rank and group. This article contributes to the long‐standing and ongoing debate on poverty measurement by comparing the use of monetary and multidimensional poverty approaches, with a special focus on children in Vietnam and extending the empirical analysis beyond conventional methods. In addition to investigating whether poverty outcomes or groups of identified poor children differ when using the two different poverty measures, we also investigated the drivers underlying these differences. Findings confirm a considerable degree of mismatch: both poverty measures proved to be inadequate proxies for the other and factors underlying the identification by either one or both of the measures differed.

Increased attention to childrens’ special position within poverty measurement resulted in the development of various child poverty approaches in the last decade. Analysis shows that their development processes involve a similar set of steps and decisions, predominantly taken in the same sequence. However, it also becomes apparent that many of these decisions are made implicitly rather than explicitly, resulting in unclear and non-transparent underlying constructs. Consequently, child poverty approaches often lack a solid and robust foundation and are misinterpreted and misunderstood when used for analytical and policy purposes. This paper distills a generic construction process from the analysis of existing child poverty approaches, presenting a tool for clear and transparent development of such approaches. It is then applied to the case of Vietnam, using household survey data, to illustrate its practical use and develop a Vietnam-specific child poverty approach. Findings suggest that 37% of all children are poor, whilst observing a large rural-urban divide but no significant differences between boys and girls.

Targeting efficiency and poverty reduction effects of means-tested and universal child benefits in Russia This paper evaluates a policy change from universal to means-tested child allowances in terms of targeting efficiency and poverty reduction taking the introduction of means-tested child benefits in Russia as a case study. We use the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) from 2000 to 2004 to analyze the impact of the reforms and to simulate the effects of various means-tested and universal child benefit schemes. Since the reforms in 2000, more children receive benefits and there is improved targeting of low income households. Nevertheless, both inclusion and exclusion errors are considerable and although the poverty reduction impact improved marginally since the reforms, its effect on child poverty is small. Our simulations show that universal schemes achieve additional poverty reductions in all indicators because previously excluded children now also receive a benefit. But size matters most; only by increasing benefit levels considerably, more substantial poverty reductions can be achieved.

The 'watch dog' role of the media, the impact of migration processes, health care access for children in developing countries, mitigation of the effects of Global Warming are typical examples of governance issuesissues to be tackled at the base; issues to be solved by creating and implementing effective policy.The Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Maastricht University, prepares students to pave the road for innovative policy developments in Europe and the world today.Our master's and PhD programmes train you in analysing, monitoring and evaluating public policy in order to strengthen democratic governance in domestic and international organisations. The School carefully crafts its training activities to give national and international organisations, scholars and professionals the tools needed to harness the strengths of changing organisations and solve today' s challenges, and more importantly, the ones of tomorrow. Due to the acknowledgment that children deserve special focus in poverty measurement, the measurement of child poverty and well-being has received increasing attention within the academic and policy arena. The dependence of children on their direct environment for the provision of basic needs, the childspecific requirements in terms of their basic needs and the request for specific information for the formulation of child-focused policies are important reasons calling for the development of child poverty approaches. A range of approaches has been developed in the last decade to meet the need for a measurement tool especially geared to capture children and internalize their specific needs. Each of these approaches differ with respect to their chosen identification mechanism, aggregation methodology and data requirements. Decisions made on all these elements involve a set of advantages and disadvantages and have consequences for the usefulness of the approach to serve a specific purpose or audience. This review provides a structural overview of the current state of literature on the measurement of child poverty and well-being. We conclude that there are no perfect approaches for the measurement of child poverty and that each approach is the result of a specific conceptual framework in accordance with the availability of resources. Authors