Document Library
This issue of Challenges examines the progress made thus far on childcare leave for parents—mothers and fathers— and turns a spotlight on pending debts in this regard. Few legislative or practical measures exist for satisfying the many types of early childhood care needs, and inequalities of origin are still rife. In order to meet those… Read more
This edition of Early Childhood Matters looks at the question of how to scale up early learning provision without sacrificing quality. Articles consider lessons that can be learned from national-level experiences in South Africa, Kenya, the US, the UK, Macedonia, Cuba, Chile and Peru, as well as examining lessons at an organisational level with input… Read more
A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were… Read more
This chapter updates earlier information about interactive radio instruction over the past five years, and introduces two cases where IRI has had an impact in Africa in two ways not captured in the past. In Guinea, IRI has gone to scale on an unprecedented level in West Africa to reach students and teachers on a… Read more
Most efforts to date to prevent mother-to child transmission of HIV have focused on provision of antiretroviral prophylaxis to HIV-infected pregnant women. Increasing voluntary contraceptive use has been an underused approach, despite clear evidence that preventing pregnancies in HIV-infected women who do not wish to become pregnant is an effective strategy for reducing HIV-positive births…. Read more
This analysis looks at the costs and benefits of adding family planning services to programs for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in fourteen high HIV prevalence countries. The benefits of PMTCT programs are discussed. They are further enhanced by the addition of family planning services which by 2007 could avert an… Read more
Misoprostol is a prostaglandin analogue with uterotonic properties. A group of 141 women with less than 70 days of pregnancy received up to 3 doses of 800 μg of misoprostol every 48 hr. Failure was defined as the need for surgical abortion and success as the complete expulsion of the products of conception pharmacologically. In… Read more
This report documents the findings of a strategic assessment of reproductive health in the Dominican Republic (DR), carried out by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (SESPAS) and the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS) with technical and financial support from the Population Council’s Expanding Contraceptive Choice program and its Latin American and Caribbean regional… Read more
The World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), developed by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, draws attention to unacceptable levels of education inequality across countries and between groups within countries, with the aim informing policy design and public debate. This booklet looks at the impact that gender, wealth and where a child or young… Read more
A randomized intervention that gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers living in poverty was shown to have large effects on the earnings of participants. The intervention consisted of one-hour weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers to interact and play with their children… Read more