According to the most recent estimates from the Lancet series on early childhood development, 250 million children under the age of five in low and middle-income countries are exposed to stunting and extreme poverty, putting them at risk of poor developmental outcomes.
In this talk, Emanuela Galasso will review the productivity and equity arguments behind ¡®high quality¡¯ investments in the early years of life, focusing on nutrition and early childhood development interventions. Even when the economic case is made, the ¡®what¡¯ and ¡®how¡¯ are critically important to achieve effectiveness. Emanuela will discuss how we can use the evidence from developmental science and economics to understand mechanisms and inform better policy design of interventions that achieve long-term impact and can be implemented at scale. Finally, she will zoom in on the behavioral change dimension of nutrition and childhood development interventions, focusing on the role of information, beliefs, and agency that the poor have in adopting optimal behaviors.
Last Updated: Oct 12, 2016