Child Poverty In Kenya – Multidimensional Approach Study Report

Child poverty distorts children’s physical, cognitive and social development. Poverty can also set children on a lifelong trajectory of low education levels and reduced productivity, and undermine their physical and mental health. Children living in poverty are more likely to become impoverished adults and have poor children, thereby creating and sustaining inter generational cycles of poverty.

The purpose of this report is to measure child poverty in Kenya in all its dimensions, recognizing that children can be deprived of more than one basic need or service simultaneously, and that children’s needs differ depending on their age. The report identifies the most vulnerable groups of children, points at the main factors of dimensional deprivation and multidimensional poverty, and identifies key bottlenecks in provision of basic services and main barriers to accessing them. This report provides baseline information and evidence useful for formulation of child sensitive policies, plans and budgets both at the county and national levels. In addition, the evidence generated in this report will be useful in subsequent monitoring of progress in the realization of child rights particularly as indicated in the SDG1 and SDG10.