Brief

In Egypt, one in five children under the age of five are stunted; but for children born of others younger than 18, the risk of stunting is higher. Controlling for socio-economic and other characteristics, being born of a mother younger than 18 increases the likelihood of stunting for children under-five by eight percentage points in the baseline model as compared to otherwise similar children born of older mothers.

In Ethiopia, more than four in ten children under the age of five are stunted; but for children born of mothers younger than 18, the risk of stunting is higher. Controlling for socio-economic and other characteristics, being born of a mother younger than 18 increases the likelihood of stunting for children under-five by seven percentage points in the extended model, as compared to otherwise similar children born of older mothers.

In Nepal, women who marry as children have on average 15-26 percent more births over their life time as compared to women marrying after the age of 18. Controlling for socio-economic and other characteristics, the average number of births per woman would be reduced by 0.45 births or about eleven percent if child marriage could be eliminated. This in turn will have a substantial effect on demographic growth.

Development institutions and governments agree on the need to start early when it comes to children’s healthy development. Early childhood is a critical time for both the brain and body, and it’s important that children receive appropriate nutrition, health, stimulation and socio-emotional support in this period. The government of Bangladesh is working with a variety of partners on initiatives to improve early childhood development and provide the country’s youngest citizens with a good start.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the right of people with disabilities to education, while Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commits the global community to "(ensuring) equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including person with disabilities" by 2030. Despite these international commitments, the approximately 5.8 million school age children with disabilities in China face significant difficulties in accessing education.

Development institutions and governments agree on the need to start early when it comes to children’s healthy development. Early childhood is a critical time for both the brain and body, and it’s important that children receive appropriate nutrition, health, stimulation and socio-emotional support in this period. But child development programs can be expensive and complicatedto deliver—especially when they include home visits to show caregivers how to stimulate healthy development—and it’s still not clear how best to design and deliver cost-effective programs in low-income areas.

Due to its great expansion of access to education over the last decades, LAC is a top performer in absolute intergenerational mobility. More children are going to school for longer than their parents before them. However, the region does not compare well to other regions in terms of relative mobility. That is, those born to the least educated parents are significantly more likely to become the least educated in their own generations. This pattern of high absolute mobility but low relative mobility is unique to LAC.

This note provides a rapid summary of a first set of eight notes in this series on girls’ education and child marriage in West and Central Africa. The eight notes were prepared ahead of the High Level Meeting on Ending Child Marriage in West and Central Africa held in Dakar on October 23-25, 2017. Several notes in this first set look at the economic impacts of girls’ education and child marriage on a range of other development outcomes.

From the creation of the United Nations millennium development goals of 2000 to the 2015 sustainable development goals there has been a notable shift in focus on the all-important issue of education. Today the emphasis is on providing an inclusive and quality education. Bridge international academies was established to change the quality of education available to children in underserved, low-income communities. It is the first educational organization to address the problem of quality at scale, allowing it to invest heavily in research and technology and to focus relentlessly on learning.

IFC’s education strategy seeks to expand equitable access to quality education at affordable costs that leads to employment opportunities. It also calls for IFC to bring value to clients through its sector expertise, and to help clients design methods for assessing the effects of higher education on employment opportunities for students.