Document Library
The document library features summaries and links to editorially-selected publications on the key themes of health, education, nutrition, social protection and WASH. The documents are sourced from academic research, policy papers and global development organisations.
The Copenhagen Consensus is a project that establishes priorities for global welfare. It was set up in 2004 by gathering some of the world’s greatest economists to improve prioritisation of the numerous problems the world faces and the process has been repeated every four years. The expert panel’s task is to create a prioritised list of solutions to… Read more
In this paper, the authors summarise the evidence about interventions with proven effectiveness in addressing undernutrition. These actions span interventions directed at mothers, babies, and young children, and include direct nutrition interventions (eg, provision of micronutrients) as well as indirect interventions such as behaviour change interventions directed at feeding practices and accompanied by supportive measures… Read more
This paper addresses the potential long-term implications of undernutrition through a review of the associations between maternal and child undernutrition with human capital and risk of adult diseases in low and middle-income countries. Data from Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines, and South Africa was analysed and it was found that indices of maternal and child… Read more
This is the first paper of the Lancet special series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and focuses on the magnitude of the problem and the short term consequences of undernutrition in low and middle income countries. The paper uses new analyses of existing data to estimate the effects of the risks related to measures of… Read more
This paper looks at child anthropometric data on a country by country basis and aimed to estimate trends in the distributions of children’s anthropometric status and assess progress towards MDG 1. The data was collated from population-representative data on height and weight-for-age Z score, from health and nutrition surveys, summary statistics from the WHO Global… Read more
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank jointly compiled this report from global and national data on child nutrition. The joint analysis dataset includes 639 nationally representative surveys from 142 countries/territories. The report covers levels and trends of malnutrition globally, including stunting, wasting, under and overweight. The report… Read more
There is a wide and growing interest in the use of mobile telephony to improve education service outcomes. The first part of the report identifies the key lessons learned and recommendations for policy makers relating to the use of mobile telephony to improve education service outcomes, though with a general focus on mobile phone-assisted learning…. Read more
This Health Policy Toolkit offers health policy stakeholders and practitioners online access to a growing collection of information about policies and practices that can help enhance the contribution of the private sector to important health goals in developing countries. The Toolkit includes links to key policy resources in a variety of formats. Module 1: Fundamentals… Read more
Community participation is often described as a key for primary health care in low-income countries. Recent performance-based financing (PBF) initiatives have renewed the interest in this strategy by questioning the accountability of those in charge at the health centre (HC) level. This research analyses the place of two downward accountability mechanisms in a PBF scheme:… Read more
Learning profiles that track changes in student skills per year of schooling often find shockingly low learning gains. Using data from three recent studies in South Asia and Africa, the authors show that a majority of students spend years of instruction with no progress on basics. Shallow learning profiles are in part the result of… Read more
This report focuses on one of the major barriers to education girls face: gender-based violence – sexual, physical and psychological – in and around schools. Girls are vulnerable to rape, exploitation, coercion and discrimination perpetrated by students and teachers. ‘A girl’s right to learn without fear’ looks at the issues and presents solutions which are… Read more