The Impact of Poverty in Parents and Caregivers’ Participation towards Community Child Wellbeing Activities among the Pastoral Communities of Baringo, Marsabit, Turkana and West Pokot in Kenya

Participation and involvement of parents and caregivers in community child wellbeing activities influences the achievement and cognitive development of children, youth, and even young adults (Melhuish et al., 2008; Sylva et al., 1999) [1]. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of poverty in parents and caregivers’ participation towards community child well-being activities among the pastoral communities of Baringo, Marsabit, Turkana and West Pokot Counties in Kenya. It uses the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and Poverty Probability Index (PPI) for classification of households as either rich or poor. Households with MPI score ≥ 0.33 or PPI ≥0.5 were classified as poor, otherwise rich. The data for this study were taken from both primary and secondary sources.

The study results showed that overall, nine in ten of the sampled households were poor while one in ten were rich. Among the households classified as rich, six in ten (62.7%) compared to five in ten (53.8%) of those classified as poor participated in child wellbeing activities.

Based on the study findings and Pearson Chi-Square test results, the study concluded that there was a significant relationship between poverty and participation of caregivers in community child wellbeing activities. The relationship reflected that caregivers from poor households had a higher risk of not participating in child wellbeing activities than those from rich households. The study recommended the need for accelerating interventions aimed at poverty alleviation. Such interventions may include but not limited to: increasing access to education, supporting poor households through cash transfer programmes, adoption of disaster risk reduction strategies in pastoral economies and women economic empowerment.