What can Canada do to become a leader on child poverty?

There is a long-standing debate about the most effective means of reducing poverty. An OECD study on the effectiveness of child poverty strategies in OECD countries determined that the answer lies in striking the appropriate balance between a “benefits strategy” and a “work strategy. The debate hinges on the apparent trade-off between ensuring adequate income assistance for families and providing incentives for people to work and provide for themselves.

On the surface, a benefits strategy appears to be most effective in reducing child poverty. Certainly, the relationship between social spending and poverty rates is striking. Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—four of the top performers on this indicator—all allot about 3 per cent or more of gross domestic product (GDP) for direct public spending on families, a full percentage point higher than the OECD average. And among the working-age population, relative poverty rates are lowest among OECD countries where social spending is the highest.

A clear link has been made, however, between joblessness and poverty. In Canada, relative poverty rates are highest among single parents and even more pronounced among non-working single parents. Across the OECD, non-employed families are the most economically disadvantaged, which means job creations strategies are an integral part of tackling poverty.

Countries that have reduced poverty rates have turned away from passive, benefits-only poverty reduction approaches in favour of national anti-poverty strategies that incorporate a number of “active” policies. Active policies are social policies that integrate strategies across governments, departments, and service providers to reduce poverty and increase self-sufficiency. For example, active job policies may be set up to help people overcome obstacles to get jobs through a combination of:

• funding jobs training
• providing child care
• introducing tax incentives for lower-paid workers

Child Poverty in Canada

Almost a generation after Ottawa’s vow to eradicate child poverty by 2000, national and provincial report cards show very little sustained progress.

One in seven Canadian children — or 967,000 — still lives in a low-income household, according to Campaign 2000 in its annual report being released Tuesday, the 24th anniversary of the historic federal pledge.

In Ontario, child poverty rates mirror the national average, with about 371,000 children living in poor households, says the group’s provincial report card, which is also being released Tuesday.

Alarmingly, 38.2 per cent of children of single mothers in Ontario are living in poverty.

“As we approach 25 years since the promise to end child poverty in Canada, there’s a fork in the road,” said Laurel Rothman, national coordinator of Campaign 2000, a coalition of labor and anti-poverty groups dedicated to holding politicians to account.

“Canadian leaders can choose to take action on the pathways out of poverty for children or they can choose not to act,” she warned.

The national and provincial reports are based on 2011 data, the latest available from Statistics Canada.

National child poverty numbers were down slightly from 2010 when 979,000 were living in poverty. But they are still higher than in 1989 when the House of Commons unanimously resolved to end child poverty by the millennium. At that time there were 912,000 children living in poverty, the report notes.

The group praises Queen’s Park for boosting its provincial child benefit and continuing to raise the minimum wage despite the 2008 global recession. As a result of those measures, child poverty in the province has declined by 9.2 per cent since then.

But the McGuinty government’s austerity budget of 2012 has put many of those gains at risk, said Anita Khanna of Ontario Campaign 2000.

“In order to stop poverty’s devastating impacts on our communities, we need a renewed all-party commitment to poverty reduction and eradication through investment,” the Ontario report says.

“Low-income Ontario families need investments that will lift them out of poverty such as decent employment, improved child benefits, affordable housing options, livable social assistance rates and high quality, reliable child care services,” the report says.

Statistics Canada considers families to be living in low income when their income falls below 50 per cent of the median household income, after taxes. The so-called low income measure in 2011 for a single parent with one child was $28,185 after taxes. Campaign 2000 and Ontario have adopted the measure to gauge progress on poverty reduction.

Toronto single mother Ines Garcia, 48, has lived in poverty with her four children since Ottawa first vowed to end child poverty 25 years ago. She endured the welfare cuts of the provincial Tory government of the 1990's and benefited from modest improvements under the Liberals’ 2008 poverty reduction strategy which is credited for lifting about 47,000 children out of poverty.

But she feels no closer to escaping than when her first daughter was born in 1988. That daughter, now 25, and a 17-year-old son had been living with their father in Cambridge, Ont., until he died recently. They are now on their own, surviving on student loans, part-time jobs and whatever Garcia can give them.

The father of Garcia’s two younger children, 12 and 13, abandoned the family shortly after they were born.

“I’m grateful for the government help,” Garcia said. “It’s just that they make it so difficult to get ahead. Every little improvement here gets wiped out by money they take away somewhere else.”

Garcia is able to keep more of what she earns from part-time jobs as a sales clerk and school lunch monitor, thanks to provincial changes that allow her to keep the first $200 before triggering welfare claw backs.

But if she earns too much money, the rent in her subsidized Regent Park apartment will go up and wipe out any benefit.

Federally, Campaign 2000 is calling on Ottawa to draft a national strategy to eliminate poverty, develop a long-term affordable housing plan and help build a national child-care system. It wants national child benefits for low-income families boosted from $3,654 to $5,400 annually per child and changes to personal taxes that reduce income inequality.

In Ontario, advocates want the province’s next five-year poverty reduction strategy to cut child poverty by 50 per cent. They are also calling for a $500 increase to the $1,310 Ontario Child Benefit by 2018, a $14 minimum wage and a $100-a-month rate hike for single people on welfare. Once these goals have been achieved, they should be indexed to inflation, group adds.

Poverty and Wealth of Andorra

Before World War II, Andorra was still living to a large extent in the ways it had known since the Middle Ages. Most of its people were rather poor and lived off small-scale farming, sheep breeding, and smuggling. Even now, many families still continue to live in the old farmhouses, and life still focuses on the family and the Roman Catholic Church. International tourism and European integration since the 1950s thoroughly modernized the country within several decades and most Andorrans have turned from agriculture to family hotels and restaurants, store-keeping, and various other tourism-related services. Currently, with an affluent service-based economy and a lowinflation rate of 1.62 percent in 1998, Andorrans enjoy very good and comparatively equitable living standards and very high life expectancy. No extreme cases of poverty or very large private fortunes are currently known. Due to the high number of working immigrants, attracted over the past several decades mostly by jobs in the services industry, housing in Andorra is now probably the most acute social issue. Although many locals still live in their traditional family houses, housing is currently scarce; the construction sector is not yet in a position to address the challenge adequately, and the tiny real estate market in Andorra remains highly speculative.

GDP per Capita (US$)
Country	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Andorra	18,000	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
United States	28,600	30,200	31,500	33,900	36,200
France	20,900	22,700	22,600	23,300	24,400
Spain	15,300	16,400	16,500	17,300	18,000
Note: Data are estimates.
SOURCE: Handbook of the Nations , 17th,18th, 19th and 20th editions for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 data; CIA World Fact book 2001 [Online] for 2000 data.

Situation of the children in Algeria

Algeria is home to roughly 550,000 orphaned children who have lost either one or both of their parents. A large number of these children grow up without parental protection and care or in dysfunctional family structures. Social exclusion, poverty and a lack of family support drive thousands of children into criminal clutches. Orphaned children are particularly vulnerable to all forms of exploitation.

According to reports, child abuse remains a widespread problem in Algeria. Many cases go unreported and implemented laws against child abuse have led to very few prosecutions. Education in Algeria is generally free and compulsory for all children up to the age of 16.

High unemployment and comparatively high school drop-out rates among the country's children and young people means that many turn to juvenile delinquency. Most of the children who engage in child labor do not go to school and consequently don't receive basic education.

Being a street child in Algiers often means a life on the brink of death. Violence, starvation and drug abuse mark the daily reality of these children. The country's infant mortality rate has noticeably improved over the last decade. However, at 29 per 1,000 live births it is still around seven times higher than that of Austria. Six per cent of Algerian children are born underweight.

Some facts about Algeria

Algeria is a country located in the Maghreb region of Northern Africa. It shares borders with Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauretania and Morocco. The Sahara desert covers more than four fifths of its territory. The country is home to 34 million people, who predominantly live along the northern coast where the capital, Algiers, is situated.

Over one million lost their lives in their fight for independence from France in 1962. For many years, Algeria was marked by political instability. Following the general elections in 1992, a disastrous civil war erupted in which more than 150,000 were killed. Over recent years, terrorists have been involved in a number of kidnappings and bombings.

Although the country's economy has recently seen an upswing, the vast majority of Algerians remain poor. Unemployment is particularly high among the youngest segment of population.

Poverty and Wealth of Algeria

In the first 2 decades after independence, the government of Algeria made impressive gains in terms of raising living standards in the country by creating employment opportunities in the public sector and extending social benefits. However, the country's declining economic conditions since the 1980s, brought about by falling oil prices and years of inefficient state control, have had serious implications for the living standards of Algerians. High unemployment and inflation rates since the 1980s have led to a sharp increase in the incidence of poverty in the country. Between 1988 and 1995, the percentage of the population below the poverty line increased from 8 percent to 14 percent. According to the EIU Country Profile for 2000-01, GDP per capita in 1994 dropped by 2.5 percent over the preceding decade. While unemployment and poverty figures rose sharply in urban areas, the countryside was more seriously affected; almost 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas. Unemployment is especially serious among younger, unskilled workers.

Despite widespread poverty, however, uneven development has led to the emergence of an affluent class that controls most of the country's wealth, enjoying an elevated standard of living and visiting shopping centers featuring the best imported goods. Living in the suburbs of Algiers and Oran, the wealthy send their children to private schools and universities abroad. Yet not far from these affluent neighborhoods, a significant number of poor Algerians live in squalor, with poor and overcrowded housing, limited food supplies, and inadequate access to clean water, good quality health care, or education. The extremes are reflected in the country's distribution of income: in 1996, the wealthiest 20 percent of Algerians controlled 42.6 percent of the country's wealth, while the poorest 20 percent controlled only 7 percent of wealth. This uneven distribution of income has been exacerbated by chronic housing shortages, which have given rise to poor shantytowns in most cities. These shortages have been the result of high population growth rates and decades of rural-urban migration. This has prompted the government since the early 1980s to shift

GDP per Capita (US$)
Country	1975	1980	1985	1990	1998
Algeria	1,460	1,692	1,860	1,638	1,521
United States	19,364	21,529	23,200	25,363	29,683
Nigeria	301	314	230	258	256
Libya	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
SOURCE : United Nations. Human Development Report 2000; Trends in human development and per capita income.

Distribution of Income or Consumption by Percentage Share: Algeria
Lowest 10%	2.8
Lowest 20%	7.0
Second 20%	11.6
Third 20%	16.1
Fourth 20%	22.7
Highest 20%	42.6
Highest 10%	26.8
Survey year: 1995
Note: This information refers to expenditure shares by percentiles of the population and is ranked by per capita expenditure.
SOURCE : 2000 World Development Indicators [CD-ROM].

its spending priorities to address the housing shortages by constructing subsidized housing units and prefabricated houses at moderate cost.

The decline in living standards in Algeria continued throughout the 1990s, as the government embarked on a structural reform program to reverse economic decline, and as subsidies of basic foodstuffs were lifted. Unemployment numbers also continued to rise, standing at 2.3 million in 1999, and representing about 25 percent of the labor force, according to official estimates. Another 10 percent of the labor force is believed to be underemployed .

Algeria's mounting economic difficulties fueled public discontent that culminated in the Islamic rebellion against the state that began in 1991. The military's decision to abort the electoral process led to the unraveling of what little political consensus and national unity once existed. The FLN had been discredited both by its inability to defeat the Islamists at the polls and by its failure to manage the country's relatively rich economic resources. In the absence of viable secular parties, the Islamists claimed to represent the voice of the people.

Poverty in Algeria

Algeria, a French-speaking country in the north of America, enjoyed relative prosperity until around the 1980s. After independence, the economy was buoyed by booming oil prices. However, a blow to the oil market and inept management saw conditions in the country decline after the 1980s, and Algeria’s poverty has continued to rise since.

Today, nearly a quarter of Algerians are living close to or below the poverty line. The majority live in rural areas, though the urban centers are also suffering from unemployment rates, the most affected being unskilled youth.

Algeria suffers from major inequality in the distribution of wealth. A select minority control a large amount of the resources and live in relative affluence, able to enjoy modern conveniences, private school educations, and trips abroad. Yet the majority of the population lives in squalor and struggles for access to healthcare, clean water, education, and food.

The poorest in Algeria are the landless farmers who live in the mountainous regions to the north or near the south Saharan region. Working on the production of crops, and unable to procure their own land, they have been particularly affected by soil erosion and degradation, droughts, poor irrigation, and drainage.

Algeria’s problems are not unsolvable, and could be improved by improvements in agricultural practices or providing support services or education. Yet internal conflicts have worsened the problem in recent years, and a lack of political stability has prevented governments from implementing the necessary long term structural reforms that are needed to provide resources to lift the nation out of poverty.

Why are peoples of Algeria's poor?

In the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, 53 per cent of poor people live in rural areas and about 23 per cent of the population lives below the national poverty line. On average, poor rural households are larger than urban households and have a higher incidence of unemployment.

Smallholder farmers, pastorals, women who are heads of households and unemployed youth tend to be the poorest people in the country’s rural areas.

The poorest of the poor are men and women who are landless and who work in the production of dry land cereal crops or as pastorals exploiting common rang elands. The highest incidence of poverty occurs in mountainous areas in the northern part of the country, in the Hauts Plateaux or steppes region and in the south Saharan region.

Algeria is emerging from several years of internal conflict that have deepened poverty and unemployment in rural areas and have contributed to deterioration of the natural resource base. Rural poverty is closely related to lack of income and employment, to the large size of most households and to low standards of education. It is a result of the continuing constraints facing the agricultural sector, such as soil erosion and degradation, increasing salinity, the poor state of repair of irrigation and drainage networks, excessive tapping of groundwater and persistent droughts. Because of past agricultural policies, minimal production technologies and support services, and widespread unemployment, rural people do not have the income they need to rise above the poverty line. They have limited access to financial services that allow them to procure equipment and obtain working capital.

Due to Global Financial Crisis: Poverty in Albania increases

The Statistics Institute of Albania (INSTAT) reported on Thursday that poverty in Albania has increased due to the global financial crisis and the general macro-economic situation of low economic growth since 2008.

According to preliminary results of a Living Standards Measurement Survey in Albania for 2012, that part of the population, whose monthly consumption expenditure was below 4891 Leks (46.1 US dollars), increased from 12.4 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent in 2012.

In a country of about 3 million people, the extremely poor population, defined as the people who can hardly make ends meet, increased from 1.2 percent in 2008 to 2.2 percent in 2012. Extreme poverty decreased from 4.7 percent in 2002 to 3.5 percent in 2005.

In urban areas, 2.2 percent of the population are mired in extreme poverty, while the extreme poverty rate in rural areas have reached 2.3 percent.

Tirana, capital city of Albania has also experienced a sizable increase in poverty. Compared to 2008, the percentage of the population considered as being poor has gone from 8.7 percent in 2008 to 12.6 percent in 2012.

Situation of children in Albania

Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe with 12.4% of the population living in poverty. Poverty combined with lack of basic services and increased urbanization has led to large numbers of children living under increased “risk” and denied their rights, especially to basic health care, education, and security.

Poor children are highly likely to live in large households, with higher rates of poverty in rural than in urban areas. Poverty is weakening familiar bonds, causing the increase in the number of children living with one parent and of those placed temporarily under the care of relatives or social welfare structures.

The infant mortality and under-five mortality rate remains the highest in the region 15/1000 births . Mortality rates in infancy and early childhood are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In Albania infant mortality in rural areas (24 deaths per 1000 births) is twice as high as in urban areas (12 deaths per 1000 births). Level of parent education and family health status, mother’s age, birth order in family and birth intervals, are found to have correlation with the rate of infant and early childhood mortality. (pg117)

Roma/Egyptian children in Albania continue to suffer exclusion and segregation in kindergarten and school. Only 13.5% of the Roma children aged 3-5 are attending pre-school in Albania. 54% of school age Roma children have never attended school while 43% of Roma children aged 15-16 are illiterate. One out of two Roma children aged 6–16 drops out from school. 54% of Roma/Egyptian children of compulsory school age (6-16) have not yet completed school.

Violence against children in Albania is an issue of concern. The overwhelming majority of adults maintain that physical and psychological violence has positive effects on a child’s education, even though they are also aware that there are negative consequences. Children have absorbed the idea that physical and psychological violence are needed, both at home and in schools.

One out of every two children at home, and one out of nearly three children in schools, acknowledges that the violence exercised against them is necessary .

World Vision in Albania

Throughout Albania there are many children like Koldi and Irena and communities that have never experienced the love of God, and never heard a story of hope.  Entire communities are bound by the chains of poverty, social problems, and 50 years of communist isolation. World Vision is a witness of the real poverty. Working in impoverished communities throughout Albania, we strive to give a voice to voiceless, to model stewardship, to seek justice and to champion hope. 

In collaboration with other local partners, World Vision is working with and advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable children and their families, through sponsorship, education, health, and economic development, child protection and advocacy programs to address and break these chains of the cycle of poverty.  World Vision provides direct support to some of these families including: education materials, food packets, health services, and, in some extreme cases, household facilities.

Through World Vision support, Irena has started to attend the school more regularly, while Klodi attends only occasionally.  World Vision has supported Klodi and Irena with books and other Educational materials. This family has been supported with food packages, especially during the winter times, when is very difficult for families like this to put food in the table. Last winter World Vision gave to the family a heater, as Librazhd is one of the coldest areas of Albania with a very harsh winter.  The ADP is working step by step with this family and others like this, as is very challenging to tear down the deep roots of the poverty.

The Visibly Invisible Issue

After Kosovo, Albania is the youngest country in Europe, with more than 578,000 children under the age of 15, according to the 2011 census.  According to the latest official study of INSTAT (National Child Labor Survey), 7.7% of children between the ages of 5 and 17 are exploited for hard labor and begging.  These children are everywhere both day and night. Every pedestrian sees them, but they learn to look the other way.

These children face a greater risk of abuse, neglect and marginalization and sexual abuse. By being in the street, they are also at risk of being sexually exploited, kidnapped and involved in prostitution or trafficking. The risks are very real and felt by children like Klodi. “Some people insult me and say ‘jevk’ (An offensive word for Roma people),” he says. “I’m afraid to go only with my sister because people might do something bad to her, because she is a girl,” he adds.

The Cycle of Poverty of Albania

Klodi, 10, is a smart boy with a sweet smile and big dreams for his future. “My dream is to be a good doctor and help people with health problems,” he says. “I also want to be a doctor to have money and a good life,” he adds, revealing more of the motivation behind his dream.

Klodi’s dreams are as far away and as hard to see as the stars on a cloudy and dark night. He knows what survival looks and feels like. At 10 years old, he is an experienced worker.  He may dream about tomorrow, but he must first survive today.

Together withhissister, Irena, 9, they walk the streets and search the garbage bins of Albania from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. and again from 6 a.m. to sunrise every day, looking for metal (iron, copper, aluminium, etc…) they can sell.This is the life their father lives and it is the legacy he has passed down to Klodi, Irena, and their three other siblings. They are part of a local Egyptian community.

Klodi  and Irena live with their parents; Shpetim, 42, and, Flora, 31 and their sisters and brother: Enxhi,15;Kadife, 12, and Florenc, 3. The area where they live, on the outskirts of Librazhd, is populated by many Roma and Egyptian communities. Almost all of them survive by begging, working on the streets or selling old clothes in the markets.

“I have been looking for a job for so many years,” says Shpetim, “but, is seems that a job does not exist for me.” His search for steady work is complicated by health problems he has had since he was a child and his low level of education: he completed only four years of school.

Klodi’s family shares a small room where seven people live. There is no toilet, inside. Their “living” room contains a few odd pieces of very old donated furniture: two small sofas, a chair and a cabinet.  Their only stable income is the $30 per month they received as social assistance from the municipality. 

Having enough food, secure shelter, good health, and access to education are the most basic needs--rights every child should enjoy—but these are well out of reach for Klodi and his siblings who must work to help their father buy food for their family every day.

The Hidden Poverty of Albania

While visiting Albania, many tourists are inspired by the beautiful views they see and by the untouched nature through which they walk.  Many visitors assume that life in these areas is just as beautiful as the view.  However, digging deeper into the rural people’s lives, you find immediately that the opposite is true.

Albania is widely known as one of the poorest countries in Europe. The effects of the transition from a centralized economy in a rigid communist state and then to a free market economy in a democratic republic have weighed heavily on the people of Albania—particularly on its poor people. Despite the economy's robust growth in recent years,  about  7.5 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty (UNDP MPI Index Report 2011/ CIA 2010) and struggle to put food on the table each day.  Rural and mountainous areas are the poorest places in the country.

Why are the peoples of Albania's poor?

Despite recent years of economic growth, poverty persists in Albania as a result of continuing low employment and low-income levels, particularly in rural mountain areas, and it reflects the unequal pattern of economic growth. Many small-scale farmers lack access to market outlets for their produce, particularly in mountain areas. Without outlets, farmers cannot increase their incomes and standards of living. Their problems are compounded by a scarcity of market information, lack of compliance with food hygiene and safety standards and inadequacies in packaging and labeling, which make their products noncompetitive. Many farmers, asserting reactive, post-communist individualism, are skeptical of the potential benefits of more formal business collaboration, such as member-run marketing and trading associations.

Farm production and productivity are hindered also by limited technical knowledge, obsolete equipment and limited availability of inputs. Markets are distant, there is a lack of financial services and the ageing farming population is composed mainly of women because men migrate in search of employment. Unless processing industries are stimulated to act as catalysts in supply networks, opportunities for Albanian farmers will remain under exploited, and commercially oriented farming will remain a sporadic and unorganized activity.

Rural Poverty in Albania

Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. The effects of the transition from a centralized economy in a rigid communist state to a free market economy in a democratic republic have weighed heavily on Albania's people, and particularly on its poor people. Despite the economy's robust growth in recent years, almost one quarter of the population lives below the poverty level of US$2 a day. The poorest of the poor, who comprise about 5 per cent of the population, struggle to put adequate food on the table each day.

The income gap in the country is relatively small. Because of low incomes and a low employment rate most people's average incomes hover close to the poverty line. This makes many of them vulnerable to the effects of downturns in the economy. It also means that well-directed pro-poor policies can potentially benefit large numbers of people.

As in many countries, the incidence of poverty is highest in rural areas, where an estimated 57 per cent of Albania's people live and where most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Poverty is 66 per cent higher in rural areas than in Tirana, the capital, and it is 50 per cent higher in rural areas than in other urban centres. The agricultural labour force is heavily underemployed, and about half of all farm labourers work only part time.

For rural Albanians, non-farm employment and the opportunities it offers are a potential means of rising out of poverty.

Argentina: Lowest Poverty Rates in the Region

The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has revealed Argentina has the lowest poverty rates and the second lowest indigence levels in the region, followed by neighboring Uruguay.

According to the ECLAC report, Argentina has managed to reduce poverty from 5.7 percent to 4.3 percent from 2011 to 2012. Considering the 2005 rates -30.6 percent-, poverty rates have dropped by 26.3 percent over the past seven years.

Regarding wealth distribution figures, South America’s N° 2 economy also tops the list of countries with better outcomes with a 1-percent reduction in inequality for the same period even with the world still struggling to overcome the financial crisis.

Overral, the region shows downward trends as well.

Uruguay’s rates were of 5.9 percent followed by Costa Rica’s 17.8 percent and Brazil’s 18.6 percent.

The report also indicates that 164 million people will be struggling to meet their basic needs in Latin America and the Caribbean by the end of 2013, accounting for 27.9 percent of the total regional population.

Poverty and Wealth in Argentina

There are deep disparities in income and wealth in Argentina. In 2000, the richest 10 percent of the population earned 36 percent of the country's income, while the poorest 10 percent earned 1.5 percent of income. About 36 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The nation's poverty level is US$490 per month for a family of 4. The average wage in the nation is US$676 per month, which is more than 3 times the national minimum wage. About 60 percent of workers earn less than

GDP per Capita (US$)
Country	1975	1980	1985	1990	1998
Argentina	7,317	7,793	6,354	5,782	8,475
United States	19,364	21,529	23,200	25,363	29,683
Brazil	3,464	4,253	4,039	4,078	4,509
Chile	1,842	2,425	2,345	2,987	4,784
SOURCE: United Nations. Human Development Report 2000; Trends in human development and per capita income.

US$450 per month. About 20 percent of the population only lives on US$2 per day. As many as 8 million Argentineans work in the informal sector , or black market . In some areas of the country, the black market accounts for 60 percent of economic activity. These types of economic activities include personal service jobs (people who work as plumbers, electricians, domestic servants, and so forth). People who work in this informal sector also run small, unregulated shops and restaurants. Since these jobs are unregulated by the government, people do not pay taxes on their income and are therefore able to earn higher pay.

Government estimates are that 11 percent of the population cannot meet their basic food needs. Poverty rates are about 20 percent higher in the rural areas than they are in the urban areas. In the greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area the poverty rate is 29.8 percent, while in the subtropical jungle areas of the Northeast, the rate is 60 percent. The second-poorest area of the country is the mountainous region of the Northwest where the poverty rate is 53.6 percent.

Women make up a larger share of the poor. They comprise a large percentage (60 percent) of those employed in part-time or low-skill (and therefore low-paying) jobs. In overall terms, their poverty rates are twice as high as males. Children also have higher rates of poverty than the national average. About 50 percent of children under the age of 14 live in poverty.

Poverty in Argentina

The rate of poverty in Argentina dropped to 5.4% last year and indigence was down to 1.5%, according to data released by the controversial government’s stats office, Indec. A person ceases to be indigent in Argentina if he can feed on 6 Pesos daily, which based on the official rate is just over one dollar but in the parallel market 75 US cents.

Indec affirms that (2012) poverty dropped 1.1 percentage points from 6.5% in 2011 and indigence 0.2 percentage points from 1.7% in the same year.

Last December the Basic Food Basket which includes a minimum ration of staples for a person to subsist was up 13.3% in the last twelve months, which means a couple with two children (6 to 8-year olds) needed 720 Pesos not to fall to indigence, argues Indec.

However that same family group needed 1.614 Pesos to purchase the Total Basic Basket, which besides food includes transport and some clothing.

However the Social Debt Observatory from the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) disagrees with the methodology and the number of poor people in the country which it estimates at 11 million (out of a population of 40 million), while for Indec the number is 2.2 million. In other words the official estimate from Indec is five times less than that from the independent UCA.

Last March UCA presented its report showing a similar stats tendency both for government and private sector referred to the social situation in Argentina in the last eight months.

For the UCA Observatory, 2012 ended with a poverty rate of 26.9%, even when Indec insisted with 5.4%. Similarly with indigence, the difference is 5.5% and 0.8%.

The difference emerges from the elements used to calculate the social variable, which are basically income and prices. In this last element Indec refers to the official inflation rate which is less than half the so called Congressional index, an average of private agencies exposed to fines if they don’t use the government’s methodology.

Complex Problems in Afghanistan

Data from the World Bank suggests that 36 percent of Afghans live in poverty — more than 9 million people — but that figure may be higher because of a lack of representative data from Afghan households. Families at risk of falling below poverty guidelines face an uncertain future, as many factors could affect their ability to provide for their children.

According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), provinces in the northeast have been hit particularly hard by the effects of the war. Poverty rates range between 55 and 75 percent in areas such as Badakhshan, Kunar, Balkh and Paktika, whereas in southeastern provinces like Helmand and Farah, the situation is less severe.

Good sanitation and clean water are in short supply in many parts of Afghanistan. Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, and just 37 percent use healthy sanitation facilities. As a result, Afghanistan has the second-highest infant mortality rate in the world, with approximately 199 deaths per 1,000 live births, 134 of which happen during the first year after birth.

Agriculture, Food and Poverty in Afghanistan

While there are no reliable statistics virtually any aspect of Afghan agriculture, there does seem to be broad consensus about the scale of the problem. A past DoD report on Afghanistan provided the unintentionally humorous statistic that some 60% of Afghans have enough food some of the time. A form of “spin” that ignored the obvious corollary that 40% of Afghans do not have enough food all of the time, and there was no way to know what part of the 60% had enough food often enough to matter.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was a great deal more frank – and useful – in its effort to address these issues in an April 2010 report based on a 14-province survey:

Poverty actually kills more Afghans than those who die as a direct result of the armed conflict either accidental, nor inevitable; it is both a cause and a consequence of a massive human rights deficit. The deficit includes widespread impunity and inadequate investment in, and attention to, human rights. Patronage, corruption, impunity and over-emphasis on short-term goals rather than targeted long-term development are exacerbating a situation of dire poverty that is the condition of an overwhelming majority of Afghans.

According to the report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), some 9 million Afghans – 36 per cent of the population – are believed to live in absolute poverty and a further 37 per cent live only slightly above the poverty line, despite an estimated injection of some $35 billion during the period 2002-2009. Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world and the third highest rate of child mortality. Only 23 per cent of the population have access to safe drinking water, and only 24 per cent of Afghans above the age of 15 can read and write, with much lower literacy rates among women and nomadic populations.

Poverty forces children to quit school to work in Afghanistan

Kabul, 28 june 2004 (IRIN) - While millions of Afghan children have returned to school following the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, tens of thousands of school-age youngsters, restricted by economic hardship, must still work on the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul, to sustain their families. 

"I would love to go to school, but I can't. There is no one else in my family to work except me," Zabi, a 10-year-old boy selling shopping bags in a crowded market told IRIN. 

"I was in school, but last year I failed because I was working on the streets all day," Baryalai, a 12-year-old shoe shiner told IRIN, explaining that, with a disabled father and two sisters and a younger brother to feed, his priority was his family. 

Such cases are not unusual. "In urban areas more children work openly on the streets," Edward Carwardine, a spokesman for the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN in Kabul, noting that an estimated 40,000 children were now working on the city's streets. 

According to a 1996 survey conducted by the Afghan NGO Aschiana, the German aid group Terre des homes and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 28,000 children were identified as "street-working children" in 10 populous districts of Kabul. 

Many of the children lost the breadwinners in their homes or were put on the street to work, most of them as shoeshine boys or porters, washing cars, burning incense, selling small items or collecting metal. Others still resort to begging, but rarely admit it, considering such acts shameful. 

But such street children are hardly new in the war-ravaged city of some three million. The children, both male and female, often assume the duty or responsibility of earning income for their families after the main breadwinners are killed or disabled. 

For many children in Kabul, the families are unable to provide even the basics. To support the family, the children have to work to earn something for food, often under particularly dire conditions. 

And while hazardous child labor had not been as commonplace as in other countries in the region, UNICEF remained concerned that children who have to work in some way to assist their families did not have access to education and health care, Carwardine explained.

It is precisely such issues that Aschiana is working to address. "We are trying hard to cut the number of poor children working on the streets, and fortunately we have had some success," Mohammad Yousuf, the director of the NGO's street-working children center, told IRIN.

Since 1995, they have trained 2,600 street children in a variety of vocational fields including carpentry, painting and mechanics, he said, noting they were still working with close to 3,000 children in such areas. 

According to UNICEF, in order to better assist children who do work, or who live in vulnerable families, Afghanistan needed a strong social care system. "The fact that so many children have to work in the first place is an indication of the economic hardship and stress faced by many Afghan families," the UNICEF official said.

Carwardine said the country needed more long-term support to tackle the issue of child labor in the war-affected country. "It would be naive to think that the issue of working children can be solved in a short period of time," he noted.

Crisis in Afghanistan

Despite some improvements since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world, affected by decades of conflict and disasters, from persistent drought to flash flooding, earthquakes and the food price crisis. Oxfam provides aid to families affected by humanitarian crisis, supports rural development and sustainable livelihood programs and helps to raise Afghan people’s voice.

The Situation:

Nearly 40 percent of the population in Afghanistan live in poverty.

Over 80 percent of all Afghans depend largely on agriculture and related trades to feed their families. But the government is often unable to respond to crises such as fluctuating food prices and persistent drought or to support small farmers with the help they need to lift themselves out of chronic poverty.

Government institutions are often weak and unable to deliver basic services, while the participation of women remains limited.

An estimated quarter of the population has no access to medical care. As a result, one out of every five Afghan children will not live to see their fifth birthday and one out of eight women will die in childbirth.

Only half of all children go to school, and the figure is considerably lower for girls.

Oxfam's response to the crisis in Afghanistan:

Oxfam has been operating in Afghanistan for three decades and currently works in 20 of the country’s 34 provinces.

Oxfam aims to respond quickly and effectively when a humanitarian crisis happens:

• Oxfam provides clean water, latrines, hygiene kits and provide training on good hygiene practices.
• Through Disaster Risk Reduction programs, we are helping Afghan partners in several provinces to identify and assess the risks, develop disaster management plans and create early warning systems, and to ensure poor communities are less at risk from future hazards and better able to cope should disaster strike.
• Through the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) approach, Oxfam is also helping to feed nearly 30,000 severely malnourished children and women in five provinces.

With local partners, Oxfam also supports:

• Rural development and sustainable livelihood programs in 13 provinces
• Women’s empowerment projects, including the promotion of women’s literacy and girls’ education
• Community peace building, through the promotion of social justice and human rights at a local level.

In Daikundi province, for instance, Oxfam is assisting 64,346 families in 650 villages to identify their needs and manage projects to address these needs. To date, we have helped build more than 40 schools, over 1,000 kilometers of road, and more than 1,000 latrines. More than 120 villages now have electricity and at least 150 villages have received agricultural support, including training.

Oxfam also helps to raise the Afghan people’s voice and to advocate on the crisis in Afghanistan at the local, regional and international level.