Household decisions on daily expenditure have a decisive impact on children’s well-being, education and, particularly, their health. Whether a family decides to spend its financial resources on the needs of children or the personal preferences of adults often depends on which family members are involved in the decision-making process. In many households across the developing world, men have a firm upper hand in decisions on household expenditures. In 7 of the 15 countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40 per cent of women indicated that their husbands had exclusive control over daily household expenditures. In the countries examined in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia, approximately 30 per cent of women felt excluded from decisions on household purchases, while in those countries surveyed CEE/CIS, East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean, women reported having a greater degree of control over these decisions.