Fiscal Policy, Multidimensional Poverty, and Equity in Uganda: A Child-Lens Analysis

Fiscal incidence analysis is the most widely used methodology to assess the distributional effects of fiscal policies. However, despite 40 years of use and refinement, it still lacks. A focus on the redistributive capacity of fiscal policy among children is increasingly important as policymakers pay growing attention to the disproportionate incidence of poverty among children globally. This paper brings a child-dedicated focus to fiscal incidence analysis by tracking child-relevant benefits, making child wellbeing the unit of analysis, and using multidimensional child poverty metrics. The analysis—Commitment to Equity for Children, or CEQ4C—integrates three analytical frameworks: public finance, fiscal incidence, and multidimensional child poverty. The paper develops a proof of concept for Uganda that includes measurement, diagnostics, and a policy simulation package replicable across diverse contexts. The proof of concept confirms that CEQ4C provides a higher-resolution fiscal incidence analysis for children than the traditional fiscal incidence analysis.