Child poverty, evidence and policy: Mainstreaming children in international development

Description

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is about the opportunities and challenges involved in mainstreaming knowledge about children in international development policy and practice. It focuses on the ideas, networks and institutions that shape the development of evidence about child poverty and wellbeing, and the use of such evidence in development policy debates. It also pays particular attention to the importance of power relations in influencing the extent to which children's voices are heard and acted upon by international development actors. The book weaves together theory, mixed method approaches and case studies spanning a number of policy sectors and diverse developing country contexts in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It therefore provides a useful introduction for students and development professionals who are new to debates on children, knowledge and development, whilst at the same time offering scholars in the field new methodological and empirical insights.

Nicola Jones is a Research Fellow in the Social Development Programme at the Overseas Development Institute where she works on issues related to knowledge and power in the social policy sector, with a particular focus on gender and childhood. Andy Sumner is a Fellow of the Vulnerability and Poverty Research team at the Institute of Development Studies. He is a cross-disciplinary economist. His primary foci of interest are: child poverty; the MDGs, and the politics of policy processes.

"This book is a significant and timely contribution to an improved understanding of the neglected but all-too-important subject of Child Poverty and what to do about it. It is a must reading for researchers and policy makers interested in child poverty and evidence-based advocacy and public policy" Dr. Assefa Bequele, Director, African Child Policy Forum "Jones and Sumner provide a sophisticated analysis of the multi-dimensional interplay between evidence and policy on child poverty. The result is a compelling account of why child poverty in developing countries needs to be tackled by increasing children's visibility, voice and vision in both knowledge generation and policy processes. Academics and policy audiences alike will find it invaluable." Sandra Nutley, Professor of Public Management, University of Edinburgh Business School