Child Poverty in Cambodia

In line with the global development agenda and its recognition of child poverty as a unique condition with its own set of considerations, the Cambodian Government has recognized that child poverty analysis is an important tool for evaluating the impact of its poverty agenda. Using a child lens to assess the challenges of poverty reduction offers key insight into the nature of poverty in Cambodia – who the poor are, why their poverty persists, and how poverty is intergenerationally transmitted. Understanding the current context of child poverty and establishing baselines to assess progress is indispensable to achieving the 2030 SDG targets.

In support of UNICEF Cambodia, we studied child poverty in Cambodia through both the multidimensional and monetary perspective, which supports a more precise measurement and a better understanding of the situation of children in Cambodia. Where the monetary poverty measurement focuses on assessing the average financial means children’s households have available, multidimensional poverty measurement determines whether children’s basic needs are being met independent of income. The separate analysis of these two concepts of poverty allow for a more complete picture of the reality of Cambodian children, and for the identification of the most vulnerable subgroups of children that require specialized policy and programming.

The analysis was conducted using 2014 government data: the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey (CSES) for monetary poverty and the Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) for the multidimensional component. Taken together, the CSES and the CDHS analysis allows for a complete picture of the reality of Cambodian children and helps to identify the most vulnerable subgroups that require specialized policy and programming.

The summary report is available through UNICEF in English and in Khmer.