Disparities affecting children cloud economic good news story
Despite widespread economic upturn in South-Eastern Europe and
the Commonwealth of Independent States (SEE/CIS) since the late
‘90s, one in four children under 15 is still living in extreme
income poverty according to a UNICEF report. The Innocenti
Social Monitor 2006: Understanding Child Poverty in South-
Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States finds
that while the number of children under 15 living in extreme
poverty has decreased from 32 million to 18 million, stark
disparities in child well-being and opportunities exist: the
share of children now living in extreme poverty ranges from 5
per cent in some SEE countries to a startling 80 per cent in the
poorest Central Asia countries. Analysis of data from rural and
urban settings, from households of different sizes and
structures, throws up disparities within countries that
particularly affect children in families where there are more
than two siblings. Official data for Bosnia an