Growing Up in Poverty: Recent findings from Young Lives

Ginny Morrow, Senior Research Officer /

Deputy Director, Young Lives

March 2015

YOUNG LIVES

• Multi-disciplinary study that aims to:

- improve understanding of childhood poverty

- provide evidence to improve policies & practice

• Following nearly 12,000 children in 4 countries: Ethiopia; India

(Andhra Pradesh & Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, over 15 years

• Now covers 11-year period: first data collected in 2002, with 4 survey

rounds and 4 waves of qualitative research with nested sample of 50

children, and survey of Young Lives children’s schools

• Two age cohorts in each country:

- 2,000 children born in 2000-01 (Younger Cohort)

- 1,000 children born in 1994-95 (Older Cohort)

• Pro-poor sample: 20 sites in each country, reflecting country diversity

(rural-urban, diverse livelihoods, ethnicity)

• Collaboration

- partners in each country

- UNICEF Office of Research

- UK Data Archive (data as a public good)

AGES: 1 5 8 12 15

YOU

NG

ER C

OH

OR

T

Following 2,000 children

OLD

ER C

OH

OR

T

Following 1,000 children

AGES: 8 12 15 19 22

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 2002 2006 2009 2013 2016

VISUALISING THIS

Same age children at

different time points

Qualitative nested sample

1 2 3 4

Linked

school surveys

• School effectiveness and learning: including

enrolment, learning, progression, retention,

relevance, violence

• Nutrition and health: including stunting (and

recovery), food security, access to water & sanitation

• Youth and development/adolescence: gender,

marriage & fertility, work and/or education, violence

CURRENT PRIORITIES

TEN YEARS IN CHILDREN’S LIVES

• The economies of all four Young Lives

countries grew rapidly in the first

decade of the 21st Century

• This growth was accompanied by broad

infrastructural improvements and

increased service access (associated

with the MDGs), e.g. – increased external investment, road

and communications infrastructure

– primary school enrolment = near

universal in 3 of our countries, and

rapidly increasing in Ethiopia

– Social protection: MGNREGA in India;

Juntos in Peru; PSNP in Ethiopia

– Health insurance in Vietnam, Peru and

in India; Health Extension Workers in

Ethiopia58

79

74

93

37

55

60

94

29

62

2006

2013

2002

2013

2002

2013

2002

2013

2006

2013

Piped

Water

Sanitation

Flush

toilet

Electricity

Internet

Peru

ASPIRATIONS ARE HIGH, WILL THEY BE MET?

• In 2006 between 75% and 90% of 12-year-olds aspired to vocational

training or university, remaining high at age 15 and 19

• Modest differences by wealth quintile

• Children want better jobs than their parents:

“We’re not going to suffer like this in the mud ...it’s better that I

go and study” (Marta, age 15, Peru)

“If one can learn and study hard, they will always have a good job

and at the end that can change their family’s life” (Fatuma, age 15,

Ethiopia)

“We see our parents working… they work in the fields, and work

hard daily… we feel we should not be like that” (Harika, age 16,

rural Telangana)

• The ‘best age’ for marriage and child-bearing is mid-20s

WHAT HAPPENED BY AGE 19?

• Substantial numbers are still studying at age 19 (often combined

with working)

• But unsurprisingly, it’s young people from better-off families, with

higher parental education, and in urban areas who stay longer in

education

• Gender differences in 3 out of 4 countries: boys much more likely

to remain studying in AP and Telangana; girls in Ethiopia and

Vietnam

• Poorer girls and those living in rural areas are more likely to be

married and to have had a child by age 19

Married Had a child

37% – AP&T India 24% - Peru

25% - Peru 21% - AP&T India

19% - Vietnam 12% - Vietnam

13% - Ethiopia 9% - Ethiopia

SCHOOLING - A CRISIS IN LEARNING?

• Assumption that education will lead to social mobility

-> But will it?

‐ Improved enrolment rates are a success, but don’t always

lead to good learning

‐ Learning influenced by household characteristics, not just

the school

‐ Unequal opportunities to learn

‐ Quality of schooling

What does this mean for achieving the SDGs?

IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY

Cognitive gaps are in place before children enter school, but the

ways these widen for different groups varies with the impact of

school system:

- Vietnam: performs better and more equalising

- AP & Telangana: lower standards and widening gaps

‐ Early years are central foundation for later learning

‐ Tackling household poverty supports education

‐ Greater focus on school effectiveness

‐ Potential to capitalise on school for other purposes, e.g. school

feeding programmes

‐ Addressing gender disadvantages requires both policy targeted at

children directly and engaging with constraints which shape

household decision-making

• Poverty is associated with intersecting inequalities and

disadvantage

• A life-course approach:

‐ Early childhood: ECD services, access & impact for poorer

children

‐ Middle childhood: Potential for learning with schools as

delivery platform for health interventions (keeping children in

school)

‐ Adolescence: under-recognised second critical window

• Potential of cohort studies to:

‐ enhance understanding of how outcomes are shaped

‐ align across countries to increase power

‐ improve capacity to use evidence for policy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SDGS AND DATA REVOLUTION

Young Lives children and their parents/caregivers as well as

community leaders, teachers, health workers and others in

communities

Fieldworkers and supervisors, data managers, researchers and

country directors in each country

Oxford team

Funders: DFID, DGIS, Irish Aid, Oak Foundation, Bernard Van

Leer Foundation, Hewlett, Gates, GCC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS

www.younglives.org.uk

• methodology and research papers

• datasets (UK Data Archive)

• publications

• child profiles and photos

• e-newsletter

FINDING OUT MORE