It represents an important step towards establishing childhood deprivation as a lead indicator for social policy in Mali, and towards understanding the complex interaction between financial constraints and other household factors in determining children's wellbeing. The analysis is primarily based on the MICS (2009-10) dataset and covers 12,542 households with children, and has a sample with a total of 71,055 children. The MICS data covers various aspects of child well-being and is therefore particularly suitable for the child deprivation analysis.