Gendered Capability Deprivation in Early Childhood: Evidence from Four MENA Countries

This article examines gender differences in early childhood capability deprivation in Algeria, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen. Using nationally representative surveys from the Pan Arab Project for Family Health, we estimate deprivation among children aged 0-4 in three latent dimensions: nutrition, sanitation, and access to information. The empirical strategy combines a capability-deprivation framework with multi-group structural equation modelling, measurement-invariance tests, and multidimensional aggregation. The results show that gendered deprivation is neither uniform nor always to the disadvantage of girls. Female children are more likely to be capability deprived on aggregate in Algeria, Morocco, and Yemen, while male children appear more deprived in Syria. Gender disparities also vary across dimensions: boys are more likely to be nutrition-deprived in Morocco and Syria, while girls are more likely to be sanitation-deprived in Algeria and Morocco and information-deprived in Morocco and Yemen. Rural residence and low household-head education are generally associated with weaker achievements in nutrition, sanitation, and information. The findings contribute to applied research on child poverty measurement and gender inequality by showing that gendered capability deprivation is observable before school age and is patterned by household and public-service conditions.