Scaling up early childhood development services has the potential to increase children's cognitive and socio-emotional development and promote school readiness in a large segment of the population. This study used a randomized controlled trial approach to evaluate three scaled-up programs...

This paper experimentally examines the impacts of a large-scale government program that increased the supply and quality of community preschools in rural Cambodia. The construction of new preschool facilities was paired with two demand-side interventions designed to stimulate additional...

Substantial work has demonstrated that early nutrition and home environments, including the degree to which children receive cognitive stimulation and emotional support from parents, play a profound role in influencing early childhood development. Yet, less work has documented the joint...

The World Bank created this Early Child Development (ECD) Guide in response to a growing demand from Task Team Leaders (TTLs) for advice and support to facilitate the policy dialogue on the topic of ECD and to help policy makers make and implement relevant choices on how to best invest in ECD in...

This study analyzed the impact of a community-based preschool program on child development and schooling outcomes in high-poverty areas of rural Mozambique. Preschools were randomly assigned to 30 of 76 eligible communities. Using a panel survey of 2,000 households with preschool aged children,...

In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural extension models have become more decentralized and participatory and thus rely on effective farmer-to-farmer learning, while increasingly including nontraditional forms of education. At the same time, agricultural technologies become more complex and...

Across six Sub-Saharan African countries, grade 4 students of teachers who were hired after a free primary education reform perform worse, on average, on language and math tests-statistically significantly so in language-than students of teachers who were hired before the reform. Teachers who...

As the labor force in agriculture grows smaller, displaced rural workers need new options. Effective preparedness of those who leave the farm is a critical part of an overall strategy to mobilize agriculture for development

Cash transfer programs have become extremely popular in the developing world. A large literature analyzes their effects 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...

Low aspirations can limit households investments and contribute to sustained poverty. Vice versa, increased aspirations can lead to investment and upward mobility. Yet how aspirations are formed is not always well understood. This paper analyzes the role of social interactions in determining...