Combating Child Poverty at the Local Government Level in Austria and Belgium

In line with the social investment paradigm and the European Pillar of Social Rights combating child poverty is an ongoing topic in the European Union. Belgium and Austria have child poverty rates of more than 20%. Both countries share that they are federal states with a corporatist welfare state tradition. In the fight of breaking the cycle of disadvantages for children, local governments are increasingly involved in combating child poverty in a multi-level governance context. Against this background, the paper compares the local collaborations of public, social and solidarity economy partners on the policy design and the service provision level to combat child poverty in four cities (Antwerp, Ghent, Linz, Vienna). Our findings show that the discrepancies already begin with vertical political decisionmaking competencies. While the vertical policy making competencies in the two Flemish cities are higher, only Ghent has a local anti-poverty plan. Social and solidarity economy partners are asked to provide an input. On the service provision level, the Flemish cities have established professional service provider networks to combat child poverty and therefore put more resources in a collaborative approach and common actions. In the two Austrian cities service provision is more fragmented among the public and the social and solidarity economy partners. On a positive note, service provision in the two Austrian cities covers to a greater all age groups (pre-school children, school children and disadvantaged teenagers/young adults in the challenging transition to the labour market).