Child Poverty Measurement: the Case of Afghanistan

This paper examines child poverty from a multidimensional perspective. The main goal is to apply a general methodology in order to measure child poverty as a deprivation of capabilities and achieved functionings. In the capability perspective, child poverty is intended as the lack of freedom to choose to do and to be what children have reason to value. Although the various approaches to conceptualising, defining and measuring poverty, several researchers underline the need for children to be separated from their adult nexus, and treated according to their own specificities. The case study is focused on Afghan children, and it is based on a survey carried out by Handicap International that took into consideration many dimensions of children’s wellbeing, including concepts that are usually missing in standard surveys.