Research & Action to Advance Investigative Tools about Multidimensional Child Poverty and Inequality
Equity for Children is focused on strengthening global research and policy tools in our Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025). Co-edited by Executive Director Alberto Minujin and UNICEF’s Enrique Delamonica, the volume is authored by 51 scholars and practitioners from 15 countries. It offers a comprehensive framework about a multidimensional and rights-based understanding of child poverty. The Handbook integrates decades of empirical research, policy innovation, and field experience. Read more.
The Handbook’s research will be disseminated in an online course in fall 2026 throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. In partnership with University of Bristol, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and other poverty research methods experts, our course will equip NGO practitioners, census and statistical bureaus, and PhD students to interpret multidimensional poverty data and offer clear diagnostics about wellbeing and child-centered participation.
Equity for Children participated in an independent evaluation of UNICEF’s global efforts to reduce child poverty. The assessment included UNICEF’s public policies, measurement systems, partnership-building, and advocacy. It underscored the need for stronger data, deeper local engagement, and sustained advocacy that will ensure poverty reduction frameworks that emphasize children’s rights and well-being. Read more.
In First Person: Latin Migrant Women & Children In NYC
“I was an immigrant myself many years ago. My experience and my work as director of Equity for Children, and as a professor at The New School teaching many first-generation students, enable me to see the contributions that our City’s diversity adds to our community and to our country.”
Alberto Minujin, Executive Director of Equity for Children.
Equity for Children has established an ongoing video series that quickly highlights migrant women’s lived experiences. The video series is helping us develop concrete, rights-based policy recommendations to bridge educational inequalities for migrant families and children in New York City. Focal areas of our research are the educational barriers that newly arrived migrants face. We then identify practical strategies for families’ integration into the NYC public school system. Equity for Children and the Center for NYC Affairs at The New School, project partners in this endeavor, offer practical recommendations for policymakers, schools, community organizations, and educational institutions. Other actions on this topic include:
Navigating Educational Inequalities for Migrants in NYC at The New School, which united researchers, policy experts, and community advocates to discuss the effects of shelter instability, language barriers, and policy on migrant children’s educational continuity. Read more here.
“From Sanctuary to Scary Place for Latinx Migrants and Their Children: Can Access to Education Still Be a Motor for Change in New York City?,” an article in ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action, presented our research about navigating shelters, school enrollment, and the ongoing threat of deportation. Read full article here.
Watch the full session of Professor Minujin participating in the Third National Meeting of “Childhood and Conflict,” organized by the Childhood Sociology Committee of the Spanish Sociological Federation, view here.
Professor Minujin and Research Assistant Stephanie Rodriguez co-authored a paper entitled Recent Latin American Migrants in New York: Education, Equity, and Inclusion (Dykinson). Read more here (in Spanish).
Promoting Child Rights & Social Protection
Equity for Children advances safe public spaces and inclusive social protection as part of its work on child-centered systems. In collaboration with Latin American non-profits, scholars, and the Fundacion ARCOR, a course and podcast we developed had practical takeaways and is entitled “Public Spaces and Childhood: Rights and Opportunities.” Read more here.
Professor Minujin’s speech at World Children’s Day, “Building Inclusive Social Protection for Children in Humanitarian Settings through Early Childhood Development (ECD),” emphasized early childhood, investing in caregivers, and community systems. He stressed recognizing adolescents and migrant youth as active agents in their own development. Read more.
Associate Director of Equity for Children Gabriel Crespo led a career workshop for Hispanic students at Susan E. Wagner High School’s Youth Leadership Workshop on Staten Island focusing on internships, informational interviews, and critical thinking as part of a long term career path and to further academic and financial success. Read more here (in Spanish).
About Equity for Children
Equity for Children is a research and public policy center that was founded at The New School University in New York in 2006. It is dedicated to reducing child poverty and inequality. Equity for Children conducts evidence, practice, and advocacy while partnering with local organizations, universities, civil society organizations, and professionals to strengthen rights-based systems so that every child, especially the most marginalized, can thrive.
