The Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) methodology developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measures the degree of stringency of employment protection legislation of OECD and G20 countries, to determine, amongst others, its labour market impacts. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in collaboration with the OECD, has applied this methodology to Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries.This document presents detailed description of employment protection legislation for 21 countries in the region as of December 31s, 2013.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 8 million older people are unable to independently complete at least one basic activity of daily living, such as eating, bathing or showering, or getting in and out of bed. This situation, called care dependence, affects 12% of people over age 60 and nearly 27% of people over age 80 in the region. The demand for long-term care services will more than triple in the next 30 years, due primarily to population aging and the epidemiological transition.

This working paper discusses the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) pilot program carried out by the Haitian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) conducted in collaboration with the IDB. The OLPC pre-pilot project was implemented at the Ecole Nationale Republique du Chili (ENRC), an all-female public school located in Port-au-Prince. Because the school year had ended before the OLPC pre-pilot began, the project was conducted as a summer camp entitled "XO Camp," held on June 30th-July 18th, 2008.

This study collects and systematizes detailed, updated and comparable information about the design, management, funding and quality of child development services in Latin America and the Caribbean. It focuses on two types of programs serving children from 0 to 3 years of age and their families: (a) those that provide child care through institutional and community modalities and (b) parenting programs.

Primary-school students in Argentina score low in international assessments of learning, particularly in math and science. To help remedy this situation, the Inter-American Development Bank is supporting a pilot study to identify pedagogical models that will enhance learning.

This report details a comparative analysis of early learning guidelines (ELGs) for infants and toddlers less than 3 years of age in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 19 ELGs evaluated are utilized by 12 national and 7 regional programs located in 13 countries in the region. Three types of programs are included in this report: parenting programs (n=3), community centers (n=4) and child development centers (n=12). Two of the twelve child development center programs fall beyond the age range of this research (0-3 years) and are included as case studies.

The ALAS-IDB Awards arise from the need to recognize the dedication, innovation, and excellence of so many people who work in early childhood development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Presented jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the ALAS Foundation of the international artist Shakira, awards are given in four categories, highlighting leading educators, centers, publications, and innovations in the region.

Belize is paying a lot for education but getting little. More youth are outside the school system than in it and many fail to make the transition to the workforce. More and more youth drop out of school and become involved in gang activities. Action is needed if Belize is not to lose a whole generation of youth. This document discusses the current situation of the Belizean education sector and its progress over the last 10 years, its relative performance compared with other countries in the region, and the policies currently being implemented by the education sector in Belize.

The effects of early life circumstances on cognitive skill formation are important for later human capital development, labor market outcomes and well-being. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the first 1,000 days are the critical window for both cognitive skill formation and physical development by exploiting a randomized conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in Nicaragua.