Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA)’s Post

Thank you Joanna Marriott for sharing this article. I agree that there is an urgent need for a multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach to Early Childhood Development (ECD). Increasing funding for ECD research, particularly in areas like responsive caregiving, education, and play, is crucial. Governments and the private sector must step up to reduce reliance on external funders. It is essential that governments and the private sector take a more active role in funding and supporting ECD programs. By increasing domestic investments, they would ensure the continuity and stability of these critical initiatives, fostering a more self-sufficient and resilient framework for early childhood education and care, leading collaboratively to better outcomes for children and communities. Collaborative research communities across countries should be fostered to share knowledge and mentorship, enhancing local capacity and bringing diverse perspectives. During my masters on ECD, I found very little research that I could count on. This highlights the significant gap and the need for more robust and reliable research in this field. Supporting all women and early career researchers, and improving research visibility through online repositories, are essential steps to promote a holistic understanding of children's development and ensure their growth and development during early years to underpin the rest of their lives. Despite its crucial role in shaping future generations, quite often ECD (and its unsung heroes) does not receive the platform and attention that it deserves. It is imperative that we elevate the significance of ECD, ensuring that it receives the recognition and investment necessary to support our children's holistic growth and development. 👠 #ECD #ChildDevelopment #GlobalEducation #Authenticleadership

Kizazi Kijacho – The Next Generation is a six-year research programme in Tanzania that aims to provide a better understanding of how negative influences on developmental outcomes for children under five can last a lifetime and perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of poverty and marginalisation, and to identify actionable, cost-effective, scalable and sustainable solutions to this problem. To achieve this, the programme is collecting experimental data from a sample of 3,566 pregnant women and their children, with a focus on gaining a better understanding of developmental outcomes in the first 1,000 days of the child’s life. The first round of publications related to this exciting project are now available: ·      Blog post: Assessing the effectiveness, cost, and scalability of parenting and cash transfer interventions in Tanzania ·      Policy brief: Kizazi Kijacho: Empowering Tanzania’s next generation for economic growth and inclusion. Thrive Policy Brief, 2024. ·      RCT Baseline Report: Kizazi Kijacho: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Parenting and Unconditional Cash Transfers in Tanzania. Thrive Working Paper, 2024. All publications accessible here: https://lnkd.in/eaUwFbhb Partners include: Thrive Child Evidence, Ifakara Health Institute, Yale University, Oxford Policy Management, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, European Research Council (ERC), Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES), The Research Council of Norway, D-tree, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Chr. Michelsen Institute CMI #earlychildhooddevelopment #ecd #earlychildhoodeducation

My latest sole-authored book, "Aging in and out of place: Lived experience of forced migration across the life course", will be published in October 2024. Migration and aging are human processes that occur simultaneously, but are rarely analyzed together. "Aging in and out of place: Lived experience of forced migration across the life course" provides a cradle-to-grave understanding of displacement. Using an innovative social age perspective, this book challenges students and policymakers to think about how migration journeys intersect with key life course events in cross-border and cross-cultural contexts. By centring lived experiences of childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age in forced migration contexts in Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, and Australia, "Aging In and Out of Place" explores how social age as an identity marker changes over time, space and place. To book a guest lecture, please contact me via direct message or email at: cclarkka@uottawa.ca To order the book, please visit Lived Places Publishing:  https://lnkd.in/gjdyTegu I am available to provide virtual and/or in-person (depending on travel costs) guest lectures during the 2024-2025 academic year on the following themes covered in the book: * Conceptual understandings of social age and life course in migration contexts * Birth and borders * Childhood in forced migration contexts * Displaced young people’s liminality in time, space, and place * Adulthood as default “refugeeness”: The limitations of an adult-centric approach to forced migration * Aging and dying in and out of place * Intergenerational relationships within and across borders * Temporal understandings of migration and aging

It's devastating to see that the Growing Up in New Zealand Study's contract has not been renewed. #GUiNZ looking at childhood development across the lifecourse is particularly important at a time where the number of tamariki living in poverty has increased. "We're able to look back across their entire lives, from before they were born, to understand what is influencing their development, their wellbeing, their vision for the future. We're able to draw insights in a way that no other study in New Zealand can provide for us." Long-term studies like this are particularly pivotal in showing the impacts of Government policy and societal change over a child's life. Government decisions should be made using robust evidence. We need data, we need research, and we need evidence, upon which to draw to make informed decisions and develop evidence-based policies. #childpoverty #evidence #policy #advocacy #children #unicefnz

Are you a parent with adolescent children? Are you wondering about how to talk to them about healthy dating relationships? Check out this new online program available through social media and text messaging to provide paretns with ideas about how to tackle those tough conversations!

Some good news for a change: the Growing Up in New Zealand study has had their funding extended to 2028! The value that longitudinal studies like this bring are immense, and in particular the ability to measure the impact on life outcomes from what happens in childhood and adolescence. This Government campaigned on evidence-based policies and we are heartened to see that Minister Louise Upston has acknowledged the importance of this study. As the press release from GUiNZ states, “The next phase of the study is critical for understanding how early life experiences lay the foundation for positive outcomes in young people, and for guiding decisions about where and when programmes and supports can make the biggest impact in the long run.” The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child #UNCRC recommended that the Government strengthen its data collection system, so this is one step in the right direction. Having insights into outcomes for children in Aotearoa is critical for policy development and decisions must be made using the evidence available to us. We look forward to the Minister using this data to drive her decisions to “achieve a significant and sustained reduction in child poverty” as outlined in the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 and invest the much-needed resources to ensure children can grow up thriving in New Zealand. We also urge the Minister to ensure GUiNZ funding is secured beyond 2028 to ensure long-term data is available. https://lnkd.in/giBiCdQ3 #childpoverty #GUiNZ #data #evidence #NZpol #unicefnz #uncrc #childrensrights

Today, World Children's Day, marks the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. In too many places today children’s rights are misunderstood, disregarded, or even denied and attacked.  Investing in children today secures a better future for them - and for all of us across Canada's Maritimes. In Nova Scotia alone, approximately 1 in 9 children live in families experiencing poverty that negatively affects their basic material needs like food, clothing, and shelter. This was above the national average of 9.7 percent. Many young people in our province feel school is not safe or enjoyable due to experiences related to race or ethnocultural group, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. As we listen to children around the world, and in our own communities, we not only deepen our understanding of their needs, hopes, and fears, we also empower future generations to share their ideas. And we can include their priorities now, for healthier communities. Dear adults: A letter from the world's children #WorldChildrensDay #HealthyCommunities #PoweredByPeople Data source: Department of Pediatrics and Healthy Populations Institute (2022). One Chance to Be a Child: A data profile to inform a better future for child and youth well-being in Nova Scotia. Summary Report. Available from: www.onechancens.ca.

Why should we all be investing in African adolescents? By 2050, 1 in 5 of all workers will be African. And by 2075, African adolescents will make up over half the world's young people. This is an opportunity for social and economic transformation – but only if this population is educated and skilled for their future. PEAS Zambia Country Director, Beatrice Likando, and our Chief Programme Officer, Jenny Groot, reflect on this question in an article they've co-authored for Alliance magazine. They explore why investing in quality, inclusive secondary education now is complex, but critical. They paint a picture of what a reimagined secondary school system could achieve with targeted investment. Discover why this matters to all of us. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eXe2A8GZ

Harnessing the Power of Love Land for Socio-Economic Impact conducted by Costello Medical The Love Land intervention by Taboobreaker Association has shown a remarkable Social Return on Investment (SROI) of 2.61 ZAR for every 1 ZAR invested. This ratio highlights our intervention's efficiency in generating socio-economic value, emphasising its potential to improve health and wellbeing among young South Africans. Key Highlights: 🌟Comprehensive SRH Education: The multi-channel approach includes interactive activities, a Train-the-Trainer program, and a supportive website. 🌟Positive Outcomes: Improved self-esteem, better understanding of SRH topics, and increased mental resilience among youth. 🌟Scalability: As the number of game players increases, so does the socio-economic impact, demonstrating a scalable model for wider adoption. 📈 This analysis, conducted in collaboration with Costello Medical not only quantifies the benefits but also provides a conservative estimate, suggesting even greater potential impacts as more data becomes available.

I am pleased to share our two papers that have been recently accepted to be published: First, "Maternal education and child survival: causal evidence from Kenya" (with Hang Nguyen, Yijun Yu, Phuc H Nguyen) has been accepted to be published in Review of Economics of the Household. Interested readers can refer to the following link for details: https://lnkd.in/gk5ZZGKA Second, "Urbanization and Health Expenditure: An Empirical Investigation from Households in Vietnam" (with Hang Nguyen) has been accepted to be published in Economies. Interested readers can refer to the following link for details: https://lnkd.in/gPFQMf7u