Peer-reviewed article
An Integrated Framework for Child Poverty and Well-Being Measurement: Reconciling Theories
Mario Biggeri, José Cuesta ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper presents a new framework for measuring multidimensional child poverty and well-being by integrating three conceptual approaches: the Capability Approach, Human Rights, and Basic Needs. The framework explains how resources and services convert into opportunities and outcomes for children through individual, social, and environmental factors. The authors illustrate the framework using access to safe water as an example and apply it empirically to Egyptian children aged 0 to 5. The work aims to clarify concepts and measurement approaches to better understand the causes and dynamics of child poverty.
Key points
- The Integrated Framework for Child Poverty (IFCP) combines the Capability Approach, Human Rights, and Basic Needs into a single bio-ecological framework
- The framework distinguishes between resources, capabilities (opportunities), and achieved functionings (outcomes)
- Individual, social, and environmental conversion factors mediate how resources translate to capabilities and outcomes
- Safe water access is used as an illustrative case to demonstrate the framework's conceptual clarity
- The framework was applied empirically to measure child poverty and well-being among Egyptian children ages 0 to 5
Limitations
This is a theoretical and conceptual paper that proposes a measurement framework rather than evaluating specific interventions or their effectiveness. It does not report on implementation outcomes or causal evidence of what interventions improve child well-being.
Abstract
Abstract Multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) and well-being measures are increasingly developed in the literature. Much more effort has gone to highlight the differences across measurement approaches than to stress the multiple conceptual and practical similarities across measures. We propose a new framework, the Integrated Framework for Child Poverty—IFCP––that combines three main conceptual approaches, the Capability Approach, Human Rights, and Basic Needs into an integrated bio-ecological framework. This integrated approach aims to bring more clarity about the concept and dynamics of multidimensional poverty and well-being and to disentangle causes from effects, outcomes from opportunities, dynamic from static elements, and observed from assumed behaviours. Moreover, the IFCP explains the MDCP dynamics that link the resources (goods and services), to child capabilities (opportunities) and achieved functionings (outcomes), and describes how these are mediated by the individual, social and environmental conversion factors as specified in the capability approach. Access to safe water is taken as a conceptual illustrative case, while the extended measurement of child poverty and well-being among Egyptian children ages 0 to 5 as an empirical example using IFCP. The proposed framework marks a step forward in understanding child poverty and well-being multidimensional linkages and suggesting desirable features and data requirements of MDCP and well-being measures.