Since 1986, the Government of China has been providing special funds for poverty-stricken districts, focusing mainly on promoting job and income generation. China’s achievements in absolute poverty reduction are remarkable, and its government is committed to continuing its focus on vulnerable groups, including children. In 2007, UNICEF established collaboration with the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP) to alleviate child poverty. Under this partnership UNICEF and the LGOP agreed to look at child poverty as distinct from adult poverty; conduct research to understand the child poverty situation in China; and design and pilot schemes that identify the dynamics of child poverty alleviation at the local level. 

SPRI Global is supporting UNICEF China and national researchers of China to obtain ‘best estimate’ national figures on child poverty, as measured by multiple and overlapping deprivations analysis (MODA), using existing national representative datasets. Previous studies of child poverty in China have been based on datasets from three large sample surveys: The China Household Income Project (CHIP), the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).

The main research objectives of the study include:

• Estimating the headcount rate and the depth of multidimensional child poverty in the sampled regions;
• Describing the characteristics, disparities of child poverty in the sampled regions by geographic region, gender, age, disability, and ethnicity or the other parental and household profiling variables;
• Describing the most severe dimensions of deprivation faced by children in the sampled regions;
• Mapping deprivations among children by profiling variables by geographic region, gender, age, disability, and ethnicity or the other profiling variables