JOHANNESBURG - Stats SA says malnutrition among children up to four years-old remains a major driver of child poverty.
This is particularly prevalent in rural areas where basic infrastructure is lacking, Stats SA noted in its report, Child Poverty in South Africa: Assessing Changes in Multidimensional Poverty Using the MODA Approach (2015-2023), released on Tuesday.
The joint report with UNICEF shows that while multidimensional child poverty has declined slightly since 2015, primary school‑age children remain the most affected.
Stats SA's Solly Molayi said the report assessed deprivation across several dimensions of well-being including nutrition, health, electricity, water, and sanitation. Children are considered multidimensionally deprived when lacking in three or more dimensions simultaneously.
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Provinces such as Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest deprivation levels, despite some improvements observed over time.
"The issues of service delivery including access to electricity, water and sanitation are one of the drivers for multidimensional deprivation over and above the education."
Nationally, multidimensional child poverty declined slightly from 60,8 percent in 2015 to 57,3 percent in 2023, indicating little progress, as more than half of children remained deprived.
Deprivation decreased across all age groups, with the largest improvement among younger children aged 0-4 years from 58,1 percent in 2015 to 51,5 percent in 2023.
Among primary school‑aged children (5-12 years) poverty declined by 3,2 percentage points from 62,5 percent to 59,3 percent, while for adolescents (13-17 years) a decline of 1,4 percentage points were observed from 61,2 percent to 59,8 percent.
"It is indeed clear from the report that those who are in the rural areas are the ones who are more affected especially when it comes to children," Molayi added.