This paper reports on the results of testing hypotheses about factors thought to be positively correlated with better nutritional status for rural children in Mali. These factors include:
- Higher agricultural incomes and/or household wealth
- More educated parents
- Mothers who use recommended feeding and childcare practices
- Availability and use of well staffed health facilities
- Parents who are knowledgeable about prevalent childhood diseases
- Use of recommended hygiene and sanitation practices
- Parents’ age, health and genetic attributes
- Location (type of agricultural production system, level of infrastructure, etc.)
Preliminary results suggest that improvements in health center coverage (e.g., reducing the average distance to a health center from 20 to 10 kilometers) and more diversity in complementary foods after six months of age (two or more different foods during a 24 hour period) have the potential to significantly improve standardized height for age scores. Other factors of importance are mothers’ incomes, prenatal visits, and parents’ standardized heights (reflecting either genetic traits or generations of poor nutrition).
Action for Enterprise (AFE) is offering a five-day workshop that presents the latest methodologies and practice for designing value-chain programs that incorporate strategies for sustainable impact. Participants will learn how to design programs that result in market-based solutions to MSME constraints such as market access, input supply, technology/product development, management training, policy reform, and access to finance. Examples will be used from enterprise development programs and practitioners worldwide. The training targets those who wish to improve their facilitation skills and design programs that respect the latest thinking in value chain and market development principles.
Participants will develop skills needed to:
- Select value chains
- Conduct value chain analysis/identify constraints and opportunities for growth and competitiveness
- Identify and assess market-based solutions to address value chain constraints and promote market growth
- Design program interventions that respect the latest market development principles and result in sustainable impacts
- Monitor and evaluate program performance
For each of these program design steps, the AFE-led training team will present the latest tools, concepts, and best practices from the field of enterprise development, and an exercise in which participants (in groups of 6 or less) apply the tools and concepts to a case study.
Follow the link below for more information and to register for this training. The cost is 1,600 USD per participant for the 5-day workshop. Individuals who are interested in AFE’s work in market development may appreciate this report from the CYES resource library.
This Report, prepared by the World Bank, examines five pivotal phases of life that can help unleash the development of young people’s potential with the right government policies: learning, working, staying healthy, forming families, and exercising citizenship. Within each of these transitions, governments need not only to increase investments directly but also to cultivate an environment for young people and their families to invest in themselves. The Report identifies three policy directions for helping youth develop themselves and contribute to society: expanding opportunities, enhancing capabilities, and providing second chances.
Download the full report in English, using the link below. Overviews are available in multiple other languages. These overviews can be found here.
This report makes the case for redirecting the response to HIV and AIDS to address children’s needs more effectively. Drawing on the best body of evidence yet assembled on children affected by AIDS, it shows where existing approaches have gone off track and what should now be done, how, and by whom. The report summarizes the evidence from two years of research and analysis by the Joint
Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA).
Focusing mainly on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the report examines what has worked and what hasn’t in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and emphasizes the need for HIV and AIDS services to be complemented with a social protection agenda, placing children front and center. Strengthening families, supporting collaborative action within communities, and securing the human capital of rising generation will be key elements in future efforts to end the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Click the link below to download the report in English. It is also available in French and Portuguese here.
This report reviews the evidence on conditional cash transfers (CCTs)—safety net programs that have become popular in developing countries over the last decade. It concludes that CCTs generally have been successful in reducing poverty and encouraging parents to invest in the health and education of their children.
The report looks at a range of low- and middle-income countries; large and small programs; and those that work at local, regional, and national levels. Despite differences, all CCTs transfer cash while asking beneficiaries to make prespecified investments in child education and health. Key indicators, including levels of consumption, school enrollment, and health care visits, all increased among CCT recipients. However, final outcomes such as academic achievement and height for age were more mixed.
The main objective of the report is to provide diagnosis on youth employment, which can provide the basis for future policy design.
In recent years, the topic of youth employment in Kosovo has been studied extensively. There are reports produced by Provisional Institutions for Self-Government (PISG) and international organizations and donors which compile information about youth employment trends, skills mismatches, employment promotion, and labor demand constraints for this segment of the population. Nevertheless, studies fall short on addressing issues related to youth employment quality, regional differences in youth employment outcomes, and relationships between youth employment and household poverty.
This report uses available micro-data (the Labor Force Survey, LFS; and the Household Budget Survey, HBS) and develops a more in-depth analysis of youth employment outcomes, trends, and determinants, focusing on the aforementioned information gaps. Our definition of youth includes individuals aged 15 to 24.
The report is structured as follows: chapter one provides a general background of macroeconomic and employment outcomes in Kosovo. The chapter then explains the framework, scope, and limitations of this study (Why youth? Why youth in jeopardy?). Chapter two develops a youth employment profile using data from the 2003-2006 labor force surveys and the 2006 household budget survey; analysis includes a profile of youth in jeopardy in Kosovo, employment trends, and assessment of youth employment quality and constraints. Chapter three provides an overview of the current youth programs and policies being implemented in the territory in the context of the Kosovo Youth National Action Plan (KYNAP).
This policy outlook examines how public sector employment policies in Syria affect the transition from school to work for young people. Framed within the context of Syria’s transition from a command economy to a social market economy, the analysis highlights how the country’s traditional socioeconomic model still holds sway and drives employment preferences among youth. Despite the country’s effort to shift away from government interventions to private sector solutions, incentives in the public sector – higher wages, benefits, pension coverage, and job security – continue to reinforce preferences among youth for public sector employment. The policy outlook concludes with a set of recommendations to aid Syria’s transition and create new opportunities for young people.
How do economic shocks, in particular the current economic downturn, affect the wellbeing of children? What can be done to mitigate harm? This paper explores these questions, presents a framework for analysing the impact of shocks on children in different contexts and suggests initial policy implications.
Given experience from previous crises, all countries need to consider the impacts on children. Increases in child mortality and morbidity, child labour, child exploitation, violence against children and women and other forms of abuse, alongside declines in school attendance and the quality of education, nurture, care and emotional wellbeing, can all be traced to times of economic crisis.
National governments, broadly speaking, have four clusters of policy choices available to them through which to tackle rising levels of poverty and vulnerability: fiscal stimulus, social protection and investment, labour and aid policies. In order to address the specific nature of child vulnerabilities, it is critical that the various policy instruments that governments and donors select from among these broad categories are approached through a gender- and child-sensitive lens.
Child Savings Accounts (CSAs) exist as policies, products, and programs, and are being offered by governments, financial institutions, and non-profits. This paper aims to provide
an overview of the landscape of CSAs around the world; a summary of reasons why governments, financial institutions, and non-profits are offering CSAs and features of the accounts they offer; and a few of the obstacles these institutions face to successfully offering CSAs. By examining the breadth of CSAs as well as the areas of overlap between features of and rationales for CSAs currently offered by various institutions, we hope to illustrate some global trends in CSAs.
USDOL’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor provides new and updated information on the incidence and nature of child labor, relevant laws and enforcement, and programs and policies in place to address exploitive child labor in 141 countries and territories.
