Child Poverty in Kosovo Policy Options Paper & Synthesis Report

Contributing to UNICEF’s Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities this report aims to strengthen the profile of children at the policy agenda, influencing the economic and social policies that affect resource allocations, and to make children a priority in national programmes.

This document provides a synthesis of recent reports, including a number of studies supported by UNICEF Kosovo, on the extent, nature, causes and consequences of child poverty in Kosovo. It addresses, in particular, the role of social transfers in reducing levels of child poverty and explores a number of policy options and scenarios. The policy options have been presented, also, in a shorter Policy Options Paper.

In addition, UNICEF’s Regional Office for CEE-CIS has launched a major programme on ‘What works in reducing child poverty’, commissioning a series of comparative studies, including the following (which is still in draft form) which refers directly to Kosovo and which is of immense importance for this report:

“Child Poverty in Five CEE/CIS Countries”, authored by Jonathan Bradshaw and Yekatarina Chzhen of the University of York, UK Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), (henceforth Bradshaw and Chzhen, 2010).

This report is, therefore, an analytical policy review document which is aimed at Kosovar policy makers and their counterparts and partners in the international development community. Hence, many of the technical issues discussed in the reference reports are not addressed at any length here. The report aims to contribute to a debate about how to improve child well-being in Kosovo through influencing the economic and social policies which affect resource allocations, in order to make the reduction of child poverty a priority in the future.