Jan Vandemoortele, Santosh Mehrotra and Enrique Delamonica argue that children have the right to basic social services and that poverty reduction must start with ensuring that children have a good start in life. Development (2000) 43, 16–22. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1110111

Public social services, such as basic health care, represent the effective option for the poor, especially in the rural areas of low-income countries. The quality of such services are at present extremely deficient, largely due to resource constraints and lack of political will to make them...