This is an evaluation of an attempt by Andhra Pradesh to involve communities in closer monitoring and management of education, health and Early Childhood Development services in order to improve their outreach, quality and responsiveness
This paper explores patterns in access to multiple basic services, including health and education, among children living in poverty by drawing on a sample of over 8,000 children in four developing countries - Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam - participating in the longitudinal Young Lives project on childhood poverty
This paper considers the short comings of the education sector and other factors affecting the demand for schooling in Ethiopia, which has one of the lowest primary school enrolment rates and one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. It recommends educational and cross-sectoral policy reforms and how these might be financed
This paper addresses some of the key factors affecting children's education completion rates and achievement scores. It looks at the relative importance of the school and family environment and individual child characteristics in determining child grade completion or drop out at primary school; the relative importance of investment in school quality in determining students educational achievement; and the extent to which the Education Sector Development Programme reflects the determinants of children's primary school completion rates and educational achievement scores
This paper describes the patterns of income diversification of Peruvian households with young children (aged between 6 and 18 months) interviewed during the first phase of the Young Lives study. It "aims to link income diversification strategies to the livelihood asset base and the external context of these households. In addition, it examines the relationship between these income diversification strategies and child wellbeing"
This paper assesses how the needs of children are incorporated in Ethiopia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) - the Ethiopian Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program 2002-05 (SDRDP) - and seeks to develop policy recommendations for the second PRSP, based on a comparative content analysis with other countries’ PRSPs
In Vietnam there is growing concern about the potential social impact of rapid economic changes. The extent and type of social connectedness, or social capital, may be changing...The Young Lives project in Vietnam allows the examination of the relationship between maternal social capital and child well-being. With a sample of 1,953 mothers of one-year-olds and 954 mothers of eight-year-olds across five provinces, this study examines whether maternal social capital is associated with child health
"Child health in general and long-term nutritional status in particular are related to family characteristics and assets (including maternal education) and community characteristics (including access to public services), as well as to child-specific characteristics...This paper particularly explores how mothers' education interacts with access to clean water and sewerage, availability and quality of health facilities, proximity to paved or engineered roads, and access to electricity"
This paper examines the extent and characteristics of extra classes among eight-year-old children in the Young Lives study conducted in Vietnam. It tests for association between taking extra classes and learning outcomes (numeracy, reading and writing skills)
This paper explores the interplay between school and home in determining child learning. It compares indicators, from Andhra Pradesh, of child learning according to type of school attended - public or private. It also explores whether parental education adds as a complement or a substitute for schooling in determining a child's learning
This paper describes the early work of the Young Lives project and how the research is changing the way various factors behind child poverty are understood. "Measures of poverty are rarely applied in a child-centric fashion and have solely focused on income. Increasingly, however, poverty is being recognised as encompassing low achievement in education and health, vulnerability and exposure to risk. Both subjective and objective measures of well-being need to be used to create a multi-dimensional picture of childhood poverty"