Child Poverty and Gender and Location Disparities in Zimbabwe: A Multidimensional Deprivation Approach

Abstract

Despite global progress in the last 20 years in measuring multidimensional child poverty, most studies have focused on all children generally. This approach distorts how poverty affects differently aged and situated children. By measuring multidimensional child poverty among children ages five years and below in Zimbabwe (N = 6,418) and analyzing how this problem is correlated with gender and location, respectively, this article attempts to address such knowledge gaps. Using a rights‐based deprivation approach, 14 deprivation variables are selected from Zimbabwe’s 2015 Demographic and Health Survey secondary data. The items are tested for validity, reliability, and additivity, and deprivation estimates are established for those which are valid, reliable, and additive. Thereafter, their correlations with gender and location, separately, are computed. Analysis demonstrates that the most common deprivation forms among the children are early childhood development (78 percent), water (46 percent), health care (44 percent), sanitation (40 percent), shelter (30 percent), and nutrition (13 percent), separately. While there are quite negligible share differences between deprived boys and girls, all deprivations are highest in rural areas. Although all deprivations have largely insignificant correlations with gender, most are significantly correlated with location. Ultimately, the article highlights key disparity areas for effective antichild poverty interventions and future child poverty research.