Not very long ago I wrote a post about an interesting series of articles on child development that was published in a recent issue of the journal The Lancet. One of those articles identified the main risk factors that keep children from reaching their full potential. There are many that stand out, but today I want to talk about one that is particularly alarming for Latin America: increasing societal violence.
This Social Strategy was prepared to guide the operational and analytical work of the Inter-American Development Bank in supporting the overarching goals of reducing poverty and inequality, and achieving sustainable growth as expressed in the Ninth General Capital Increase. The objective of the Strategy is to improve the effectiveness of the Bank in promoting social policies that enhance equity and productivity in the Region.
Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. There is a large literature on the effects of these programs on schooling, health and nutrition, but relatively little is known about possible impacts on child development. This paper analyzes the impact of a cash transfer program on cognitive development in early childhood in rural Nicaragua. Identification is based on random assignment. We show that children in households assigned to receive benefits had significantly higher levels of development nine months after the program began.
On November 10-12, 2011, Adolfo Ibáñez University hosted the annual LACEA-LAMES conference in Santiago, Chile.
By Mónica Rubio
I want to share some information about the positioning, design and initial implementation of Panama’s early childhood policy, which the IDB has supported enthusiastically.
One of the latest issues of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet offers an update to a special series of articles on child development that was originally published in the same journal in 2007.
Job training programs for vulnerable youth are the main response of Latin American governments to address the problem of inadequate employment opportunities for young people. Despite its importance, knowledge about these programs is scarce. This study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by presenting new evidence on the effectiveness of six of these programs operating or that were implemented in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Dominican Republic.
There is a broad consensus regarding the need to improve student outcomes in the educational systems of Latin America and the Caribbean. After an attempt to institute various reforms and initiatives, the demand for quality and equity continues to be heard throughout the region. Meeting this demand will require significant changes, regarding not only the teaching of subjects that are relevant to needs of a knowledge society, but also teaching them in a way that takes full account of the educational context that 21st century society has generated.
Having worked in development banks for some time on topics relating to education, health and poverty reduction, it is both a challenge and a privilege to contribute to the work of the Social Protection and Health Division of the IDB in the area of early childhood development.