Poverty Strikes Three Out of Four Children in Angola

Poverty now hits three out of four Angolan children, according to a study based on National Statistics Institute's multiple health indicators 2015-2016.

The study The Angolan Child: A Multidimensional Analysis of Child Poverty shows 74 per cent of children under 18 is poor because they suffer from three to seven deprivations, which include nutrition, health, child protection, malaria prevention (the main cause of death here), education and access to water and sanitation.

Only one percent of the infants included in the research do not have deprivations.

The study quantified poverty in that age group using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) system, developed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

There is also an influence on poverty when living in urban or rural areas, since while in cities it affects 62 percent of children, in the countryside the proportion reaches 96 percent.

Regarding provinces, Cunene (in the south) and Cuanza Sur (in the center) have high rates, 93 and 90 percent, respectively, while Luanda (the capital) and Cabinda (the only one separated territorially from the rest of the country) have the lowest with 54 and 56 percent, respectively.

The sample included 41,647 children from all over the country.

Unicef's representative in Angola, Abubacar Sultam, called for more government and other civil society actors' efforts to benefit parents or guardians of these children and adolescents to change their situation.

According to the 2014 population and housing census, 13,791,482 people under age 18 live in the country.