Helpdesk Reports
In general systematic and rigorous reviews find limited (and little robust) evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to engage parents in their children’s learning in resource-constrained countries – when looking at parental participation in their children’s literacy development and parental engagement with schools. Effects tend to be mixed, with scarce evidence making it hard to… Read more
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references published in the past fifteen years that discuss the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour. Globally, children are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are considered not harmful to them. They are classified as child labourers when… Read more
This report collates literature which contributes to the discussion around whether youth are more likely to benefit from economic transformation in terms of employment and income. Given the emphasis put on young people’s ability to innovate and be flexible, are they well-positioned to take advantage of macroeconomic changes? In the time available for this report,… Read more
There is growing evidence that youth unemployment is becoming a bigger issue and challenge than adult unemployment (Manpower group, 2012). While young labour participants and adult participants can be affected by similar opportunities and barriers to work, youth may experience these barriers to a greater degree and may also face additional constraints. This report explores… Read more
This report synthesises two previous reports on drivers of migration, and focuses on the evidence on education’s role. The previous reports focused on education and migration in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS), and youth employment and education in low and middle income countries. The papers presented below reflect these original criteria, but reframe the studies… Read more
Social protection is increasingly recognised as a key route to reducing children’s poverty and vulnerability. It is assumed to have direct or indirect effects on specific challenges that children face, such as child labour. Child labour is not often included as a main aim of social protection, and therefore is not commonly tracked systematically (de… Read more
Research looking at the use of smartphones to monitor doctor attendance in Pakistan found many other factors affecting attendance other than the monitoring (Callen et al 2013). Health systems inspectors uploaded results to an aggregating website. Smartphone monitoring doubled inspection rates and relatively few phones were used to cover a large population. Because politicians provide… Read more