MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHILD POVERTY IN CAMEROON, CÔTE D’IVOIRE AND NIGERIA

Incidence of child poverty since the early 2000s

Gordon et al. (2003) find that by the turn of the 21st century, four out of five children in sub-Saharan Africa suffered from at least one severe deprivation. Nigeria fared no differently. Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire were only marginally better (see Figure 1). In some dimensions, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria performed even worse than the rest of the region.

The share of children not vaccinated against any disease, or who did not receive any medical care following a recent illness, were noticeably higher in Nigeria than in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. The percentage of children not attending school was higher in Côte d’Ivoire than in the rest of the region. However, none of the three countries outpaced others one across all (or the majority) of the indicators.

Figure 1: Share of children in poverty and suffering from severe deprivation by dimension (circa 2000)

Source: Gordon et al. (2003)

A decade later, none of the three countries have been able to make a major dent on child poverty (Figure 2). Côte d’Ivoire seems to have made the most progress in reducing the overall incidence of child poverty by more than 10 percentage points (and close to 15 percent) since 2000. Despite this progress, well more than half of all children in the country continue

Child Poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria 123 to suffer from at least one rights violation. In both Cameroon and Nigeria, more than 7 out of 10 children continue to languish in a state of poverty.

Nigeria seems to have made the least progress over the last 10 years. In order to better assess these changes, below we explore the evolution of deprivation in each dimension.

Figure 2: Time trend of child poverty, 2000-2016

Source: Gordon et al. (2003); author’s estimations based on Demographic Health Surveys (DHS, 2013) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS, 2014 and 2016)

Evolution of severe deprivation by dimension since early 2000s Access to clean water represents a dimension in which Cameroon has made progress since 2000. More than half of all children were counted as severely deprived in this dimension in the early part of the 2000s (see Figure 3). By 2014, this figure declined to about one-third: nearly 1 in 3 Cameroonian children as of 2014 rely solely on surface water for drinking or need to trek more than 30 minutes to collect water. Access to clean water is better in Côte d’Ivoire (one in five children are deprived).

However, there has been no progress since the year 2000 (see Figure 4).

In contrast, access to clean water has improved in Nigeria since the early 2000s. More than 40 percent of children were counted as severely deprived in this dimension in the early part of the century (see Figure 5).

By 2013, this figure declined to about one-third.

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Nigeria has suffered from uneven progress in the sanitation dimension since the early 2000s. A marginally lower share of children was counted as deprived in 2000, when compared to 2013. By 2013, more than 1 in 4 Nigerian children still lacked access to a toilet of any kind in the vicinity of their dwelling. This is particularly concerning given that children are acutely affected by poor sanitation, which is directly linked to diarrhoea and malnutrition. This reality also presents an additional burden for adolescent girls, considering their health and privacy. Even very young children are affected, as the open spaces commonly used for defecation are their main available places for play.

The proportion of Cameroonian children suffering from severe shelter deprivation has remained relatively unchanged since the year 2000. In Côte d’Ivoire, the percentage of children suffering from shelter deprivation is much lower (about a quarter of the children). The share of Nigerian children suffering from severe shelter deprivation has increased five percentage points since the year 2000. About half of Nigerian children live in dwellings with no floor material, or where there are at least five persons sleeping per room.

Figure 3: Evolution of severe deprivation by dimension (Cameroon, 2000-2014)

Source: Gordon et al. (2003); author’s calculations with MICS (2014)

Child Poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria 125 Figure 4: Evolution of severe deprivation by dimension (C. d’Ivoire,

2000-2016)

Source: Gordon et al. (2003); author’s calculations with MICS (2016)

Figure 5: Evolution of severe deprivation by dimension (Nigeria, 2000-2012)

Source: Gordon et al. (2003); author’s calculations with DHS (2013)

The information dimension marks a category in which Nigeria has made considerable progress since the turn of the century (with a reduction of about two-thirds by 2013), while it stayed relatively constant in

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Cameroon. In Côte d’Ivoire nearly three in ten children lack access to a radio, television, computer, or phone at home.

In addition, while the percentage of children deprived of education in Cameroon stayed constant, the figures clearly illustrate that Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria parted ways in terms of the right to education;

Nigeria worsened, and Côte d’Ivoire improved access to school for their children.

The share of Nigerian children under the age of 5 suffering from severe anthropometric failure has increased substantially (almost doubling from 16 to 29 percent) since the early 2000s. However, it has remained almost constant in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire (at around 15 and 8 percent, respectively). Nevertheless, the situation in both Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire remains dire (as under normal circumstances, only 0.5 per cent of children should be below the international norm for stunting, wasting, or underweight).

Health marks one of the three categories in which Nigeria and Cameroon have made the most progress since the early 2000s. The progress of Côte d’Ivoire is this health dimension is substantial as well;

the share of children under 5 who did not receive immunization against any diseases or who did not receive treatment for a recent illness decreased by more than half since the early 2000s (from 26 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2016). However, neither Cameroon nor Nigeria reflect improvements in nutrition or education.

Geographic distribution of child poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria

There are similarities and differences in the geographic distribution of child poverty among Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria (Maps 1, 2, and 3). In all three countries, the large urban areas (Abidjan, Doula, Yaounde, and Lagos) record the lowest levels of incidence.¹ Also, the Northern areas are generally poorer than the Southern ones.

Comparing the incidence of child poverty in the region or state with the highest and lowest levels, in Côte d’Ivoire the difference is 36 percentage points, but in Nigeria it is almost 50 percentage points. This is

1 This does not imply that all children are well-off in urban areas. On the contrary, large disparities are found within cities (Minujin et al., 2017)

Child Poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria 127 due to some Nigerian states posting levels of incidence above 90 percent which is not the case in any province in Côte d’Ivoire.² In Cameroon, this difference is larger than in the other countries (about 55 percentage points between the regions with the lowest and highest incidence of child poverty) due to the high levels (above 70 percent) in half of the regions.

Map 1: Geographic distribution of child poverty in Cameroon

Source: Author’s calculation with MICS (2014)

2 In Nigeria, for example, about 15 states have poverty levels above 80 percent.

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Map 2: Geographic distribution of child poverty in Côte d’Ivoire

Source: Author’s calculation with MICS (2016)

Map 3: Geographic distribution of child poverty in Nigeria

Source: Author’s calculation with DHS (2013)

Child Poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria 129 Depth and severity of child poverty

Because the incidence of multidimensional child poverty represents only one aspect of poverty, an assessment of the general wellbeing of children must also account for the depth and severity of child poverty. Thus, beyond the share of children who suffer from a single right deprivation, the average number of deprivations suffered by children can be estimated.

The depth of poverty is highest in Nigeria, when it is compared to Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire (Figure 6). Nigerian children suffer an average of nearly two severe deprivations. This means that on average, Nigerian children suffer from violations of approximately two of their rights. In both Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire this figure is much closer to one right violation per child.

The analysis of the depth of poverty also provides insights into the number of deprivations (and which ones) that need to be addressed in order to elevate all children out of poverty (Delamonica and Minujin, 2007). In Cameroon, for instance, the major impact would come from addressing deprivations in shelter, information, and access to clean water. Nigeria, on the other hand, would need to target severe deprivations in health, as well as shelter, and access to clean water. Côte d’Ivoire could make a significant dent on child poverty by addressing deprivations in the areas of information, shelter, and education, where the largest numbers of children are counted as severely deprived. Severe deprivation in the shelter dimension continues to represent a priority for both Cameroon and Nigeria since 2000.

Figure 6: Depth of multidimensional child poverty in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria (2013-2016)

Source: Author’s calculation with DHS (2013) and MICS (2014 and 2016) 1.2

1.4 1.6

Côte d’Ivoire Cameroon Nigeria

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Figure 7 offers an intuitive view of the severity of child poverty by capturing the share of children who suffer from multiple deprivations.

The severity of child poverty is highest in Nigeria, where nearly 1 in 10 children suffer from four or more deprivations. In Cameroon, 1 in 20 children suffer from four or more simultaneous rights violations. The severity of child poverty is about the same in Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon.

This is despite the much lower incidence of child poverty in Côte d’Ivoire.

This reality points to the importance of capturing and observing more than just the incidence of poverty. This comparative analysis also enables us to observe that the severity of child poverty is nearly twice as high in Nigeria than in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire.

Figure 7: Share of children suffering multiple (4+) severe deprivations in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria (2013-2016)

Source: Author’s calculation with DHS (2013) and MICS (2014 and 2016)

III. DEPICTING SIMULTANEOUS DEPRIVATIONS WITHIN A CHILD