The World Bank recently hosted a symposium on the priority of early child development (ECD) for economic growth and equity. The participants urged application of population-based tools and measures to assess the outcomes of children's early years and children's readiness for school. This study...

In the past 30 years, China has reached the target of lifting 500 million people out of poverty. The rate of increase in human development indicators has become the second fastest in the world, allowing China to enter the ranks of middle-income countries. As the most populous country, accounting...

In China, despite the introduction of economic reforms that have lifted millions out of poverty, the income gap between rural and urban areas remains wide. There is a growing realization in policy circles that economic growth alone cannot reduce absolute poverty and inequality, and that...

The children born this year, 2004, will be eleven years old in 2015-the age of primary school completion in most countries. This is the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) generation-for whom the international community has pledged that by 2015, all children will be able to complete primary...