Enrique Delamonica

Bio: Enrique Delamonica is an academic researcher from UNICEF. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poverty & Child poverty. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 34 publications receiving 873 citations. Previous affiliations of Enrique Delamonica include International Social Science Council.

The definition of child poverty: a discussion of concepts and measurements

Abstract: This paper presents and discusses different concepts of child poverty, alternative definitions of children living in poverty, and measurement efforts in this regard. It addresses such questions as: who are the children living in poverty? Is the issue of children living in poverty recognized by and incorporated into anti-poverty strategies? Have governments, civil society organizations and international organizations identified and adopted policies to reduce child poverty? And is the situation of girls living in poverty taken into account? Several organizations have recently adopted human rights-based approaches to defining children living in poverty, and these definitions are included here. In general, however, the assessment finds that there is a lack of consideration of children’s issues in the debate on poverty. The lack of visibility has negative implications for anti-poverty strategies, which seldom consider that children and their rights are central to their design and implementation. In this paper, we argue that the lack of conceptualization and debate on the specificities of child poverty has enormous consequences for policy and, vice versa, that the income generation and sectoral focus of poverty reduction policies discourages a holistic response to children and families.

Taking the MDGs Beyond 2015: Hasten Slowly

Abstract: The authors advise to hasten slowly in defining the successor framework to the MDGs. The review of progress in 2010 should not be intermingled with the intergovernmental discussions about the post‐2015 framework. The latter should not start until a UN panel of Eminent Persons has prepared a set of thoughtful options and suggestions. The worst decision would be to keep the same MDGs and add new Goals and more Targets. The panel will have to address the following topics: (a) new structure; (b) new Targets; (c) collective nature of global Targets; (d) type of benchmarks; (e) new time horizon; and (f) disaggregated monitoring. The world will miss the MDGs largely because disparities within the majority of countries have grown to the point of slowing down national progress. In order to overcome the ‘tyranny of averages’, this article proposes a method of incorporating equity in national statistics.

Mind the Gap! Widening Child Mortality Disparities

Abstract: In parallel to the substantial expansion in global economic transactions and growth during the 1990s, there is evidence that the number of poor has increased and that income disparity among and within countries grew as well. There is, however, considerably less evidence about the situation of children related to these matters. Within this context, this paper explores the evolution of social disparities by analysing the trends in the Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) by wealth level. It is common knowledge that child mortality is higher among the poorest than the richest. However, the size of this mortality gap or the way it varies in relation to the absolute level of child mortality is not as well known. This paper shows, based on a sample of 24 developing countries with comparable surveys, that the U5MR of the bottom quintile of the distribution of wealth is, on average, 2.2 times bigger than that of the wealthiest quintile. This means that, taking into account the greater fertility of poorer households, a c...

Setting the stage for equity-sensitive monitoring of the maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: This analysis seeks to set the stage for equity-sensitive monitoring of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). METHODS: We use data from international household-level surveys (Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)) to demonstrate that establishing an equity baseline is necessary and feasible, even in low-income and data-poor countries. We assess data from six countries using 11 health indicators and six social stratifiers. Simple bivariate stratification is complemented by simultaneous stratification to expose the compound effect of multiple forms of vulnerability. FINDINGS: The data reveal that inequities are complex and interactive: inferences cannot be drawn about the nature or extent of inequities in health outcomes from a single stratifier or indicator. CONCLUSION: The MDGs and other development initiatives must become more comprehensive and explicit in their analysis and tracking of inequities. The design of policies to narrow health gaps must take into account country-specific inequities.

Economy and Society

Abstract: The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.