Do they Draw the Same Picture of Child Poverty? The Case of Vietnam by Roelen, Keetie, Gassmann, Franziska and Neubourg, Chris de
Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
06 May 2008
Summary:
This paper explores whether the conceptual differences between the global and country-specific approaches also reflect a different empirical picture of child poverty when applied to a specific country. Vietnam is used as a case study for the application of both approaches and analysis of results. The methodology used identifies children at two different levels of poverty, namely severe deprivation and absolute poverty. Findings suggest that the country-specific approach is more inclusive than the global approach, identifying a larger percentage of children as poor and capturing the large majority of those children identified under the global approach. Poverty figures of both approaches further convey a varying picture of child poverty when considering the different dimensions of vulnerability. The demographic composition of the poverty groups by either one or both of the approaches does not display significant differences.