Africa Knowledge Hub for Children

Evaluation reportWorld Bank documents and reports21 Sept 2018

Evaluating Integration in the ICDS : Impact Evaluation of an AWC-cum-creche pilot in Madhya Pradesh

India is home to approximately 164 million children 0-6 years of age, constituting about 20 percent of the world’s child population in this age group. Their optimal development is critical to human capital development in the world. Yet, with 38.4 percent children under 5 years of age in India stunted, 21 percent wasted and only 9.6 percent children aged 6-23 months receiving an adequate diet, optimal child development in India is still a goal for the future. Indicators on cognitive development, while currently not available at the national level, are also likely to exhibit a similar status, as conditions for adequate cognitive development of the child are similar to those required for adequate health and nutrition. Investments in early childhood development (ECD) are thus critical. They are known to positively impact school attendance, retention, learning and lifetime earnings. Recognizing the relevance of strengthening their investments in ECD, India in 2012 restructured their Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program framework to focus more on children under 3 years of age. One element of this strengthening was a proposal to introduce on an experimental basis, the provision of day care crèches for care and development of children 6-72 months of age whose mothers go to work, in 5 percent of existing Anganwadi Centers (AWCs). The model involved expanding the scope of the existing services provided at the AWC under the ICDS scheme to include crèche services for children under 3 years of age. The primary objective of adding creche services to the existing nutrition and pre-school education services provided at the AWC was to strengthen the focus on early childhood care and stimulation among children under 3 years of age. In other words, the model sought to enhance child care by including child stimulation along with a package of child feeding and health care being delivered through the Government’s ICDS program. The pilot or the AWC-cum-creche model was implemented entirely by and through Government systems, with some technical assistance from IFPRI and the World Bank in the form of capacity building of the newly recruited creche workers. Being completely government managed and owned makes the model not only potentially scalable but also provides a clear understanding of the barriers, limitations and opportunities if it is adopted and scaled up. (India)

OtherWorld Bank documents and reports23 Sept 2018

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim Opening Remarks at the event Partnering to Address Severe Food Insecurity at the United Nations General Assembly

The fact that tens of millions of people are at risk of starving to death is a tragedy. And in the 21st century, the fact that we haven’t ended famine is a collective failure of shameful proportions. It’s also a critical economic issue. From a human capital standpoint, famines raise child mortality, increase stunting, and impair cognitive development for children in utero at the time of the famine and of the children who survive. Child mortality increases by roughly 60 percent; the average height for children under five falls by two centimeters; and time in school drops by roughly half a year. Investing in more proactive responses to avert humanitarian crises could save millions of lives, and it can also reduce the costs to the international community by as much as 30 percent. Second, we need sustained collective action, before, during, and after crises. Humanitarian actors play a vital role in responding when famines strike, but they cannot do it alone. The development community must complement the talent, financing, and dedication of humanitarian workers, and indeed help safeguard all of the advances that have been made so that they can continue to push the frontiers of their efforts. Finally, the FAM will work with key partners and build on the ongoing efforts taking place at the country and global levels to help ensure that resources are channeled to the most effective and well-coordinated interventions. Instead of creating parallel structures, we will work with existing systems as much as possible to make the best use of our limited resources, such as building social safety nets. (United States)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports25 Sept 2018

Methodology for a World Bank Human Capital Index

This paper describes the methodology for a new World Bank Human Capital Index (HCI). The HCI combines indicators of health and education into a measure of the human capital that a child born today can expect to obtain by her 18th birthday, given the risks of poor education and health that prevail in the country where she lives. The HCI is measured in units of productivity relative to a benchmark of complete education and full health, and ranges from 0 to 1. A value of x on the HCI indicates that a child born today can expect to be only x x100 percent as productive as a future worker as she would be if she enjoyed complete education and full health. The methodology of the HCI is anchored in the extensive literature on development accounting. (World)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports1 Oct 2018

Disrupting the Gender Divide in Mali, Chad, Niger and Guinea

Mali, Chad, Niger and Guinea have some of the lowest rates of secondary school completion in the world for girls. They also have some of the highest rates of child marriage and early childbearing. While some other countries in West and Central Africa are making rapid progress toward better educational attainment for girls and fewer child marriages, progress is uneven across the four focal countries. Among them, Guinea has achieved the largest gains over the last few decades, but progress in Chad, Mali, and Niger has been slow and in some cases inexistent. Child marriage, early childbearing, and low educational attainment hinder girls’ empowerment. This Note documents trends in these areas over time as well as their impact on other development outcomes and economic costs. Finally, policies and programs that could improve outcomes for adolescent girls are discussed. (Mali)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports11 Oct 2018

The Human Capital Project

By improving their skills, health, knowledge, and resilience—their human capital—people can be more productive, flexible, and innovative. Human capital is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. Investments in human capital have become more important as the nature of work has evolved. Yet despite substantial progress, significant gaps in human capital investments are leaving the world poorly prepared for what lies ahead. The World Bank Group has launched the Human Capital Project (HCP) to mobilize efforts to address these gaps. The project is intended to raise awareness of the costs of inaction and make the case for investing in people through country engagement and analytical work. The goal of the HCP is a world in which all children arrive at school ready to learn, the time spent in school translates into better learning, and they can grow up to live and work as healthy, skilled, and productive adults. The main text of this volume—which also appears as chapter 3 in the 2019 World Development Report: The Changing Nature of Work —describes the evidence supporting the importance of human capital for people, economies, and societies and lays out the rationale and context for the HCP’s theory of change. The Human Capital Index methodology is detailed in the appendix. (World)

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OtherWorld Bank documents and reports12 Oct 2018

Remarks by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at the 2018 Annual Meetings Plenary

This report discusses the remarks delivered by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank at the 2018 IMF Annual Meetings Plenary, Indonesia. He discussed about reducing poverty by using three pillars strategy as follows: (i) first, to drive inclusive, sustainable economic growth by crowding in private sector investment, help countries manage debt levels, and harness the power of technology like FinTech; (ii) second, to build resilience to shocks and threats by taking urgent action on climate change, and help countries share the risks of disasters with the capital markets; and (iii) and finally, to help countries invest more, and more effectively in their people to prepare for what is certain to be a more digitally-demanding future. He spoke in length about Human Capital Index, to change the conversation around human capital. He concluded by saying that the most important thing we do to prepare our country for the future is to give every child, everywhere in the world, a chance to reach for the stars. (Indonesia,World)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports1 Nov 2018

When Water Becomes a Hazard : A Diagnostic Report on The State of Water Supply, Sanitation and Poverty in Pakistan and Its Impact on Child Stunting

Despite a substantial decline in poverty, an increase in access to water and sanitation and a large decline in open defecation, diarrhea and stunting rates in Pakistan show few signs of a decline. This report provides evidence that the policy focus on eliminating open defecation rather than the safe management of fecal waste has been largely responsible for this. Water tests reveal shockingly high rates of E. coli contamination in both surface and ground water. To make matters worse, few households practice water treatment and untreated waste water is routinely mixed with surface and ground water for use in crop irrigation. This multiplies the channels through which the oral transmission of fecal bacteria can occur and creates strong downstream effects through food supplies headed to urban centers. Unsurprisingly, rates of diarrhea have remained stubbornly high even among the wealthiest households in metropolitan cities like Karachi. While the impact of of E. coli on diarrhea is well known, new research is showing the far more damaging impact of environmental enteropathy, a process by which fecal pathogens like E. coli can permanently damage the intestinal villi of young children making it difficult to absorb nutrients, even during periods when the child shows no signs of diarrhea. The report urges urgent action on safe sanitation and the treatment of water to combat this health crisis. (Pakistan)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports14 Nov 2018

Concept Project Information Document (PID) - DRC multisectoral child nutrition and health project - P168756

Congo, Democratic Republic of

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports27 Nov 2018

Malawi - Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity Project

The development objective of the Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity Project for Malawi is to improve coverage and utilization of early childhood development services with focus on nutrition, stimulation and early learning from conception to 59 months in selected districts of Malawi.It has four components. First component, Community-based nutrition and early stimulation interventions to consolidate and scale up the delivery of a comprehensive set of high impact and cost-effective nutrition and early stimulation interventions; Second component, Center-based early learning, nutrition and health interventions to improve the coverage and quality of preschool education and reproductive, maternal, and adolescent health services; Third component, Multisectoral coordination, capacity and system strengthening is to support capacity-building activities from national to district levels to strengthen management, coordination and implementation of nutrition, and early stimulation and early learning interventions; enhance systems and service delivery at all levels; and improve citizen engagement; Fourth component, Contingent emergency response component will allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a future natural or man-made disaster or crisis that has caused or is likely to imminently cause a major adverse economic and/or social impact during the life ofthe project. (Malawi)

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Project reportWorld Bank documents and reports28 Nov 2018

Feeding of Infants and Young Children in South Asia

Poor breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices predict child stunting and wasting in South Asia, suggesting that initiatives to end undernutrition in the region should focus on improving the diets of young children. This review of the literature finds that South Asia has made relatively good progress in improving breastfeeding practices compared with other regions, but the lack of diversity in complementary foods and low frequency of feeding continue to be problems. Children who are most at risk of experiencing poor feeding include those who are born small, have younger mothers, and live in poorer households or in communities with less access to, or lower uptake of, primary health services. Initiatives to improve feeding practices have not produced substantial improvement, particularly in complementary feeding, because such efforts have lacked the coverage, intensity, comprehensiveness, and continuity needed. Policy, legal, and program actions to protect, promote, and support recommended feeding practices should be informed by situation analyses and formative research on context-specific drivers of poor practices. The actions should involve multiple sectors and stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, communities, and households. (South Asia)

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