In-home growth monitoring - A promising intervention leveraging community health workers to reduce childhood stunting

Abu Shonchoy is an applied economist with interest in issues of global development with a focus on evidence-based policy research. His current research interests are on financial inclusion, skills training, infrastructure, and education. He has several ongoing field experiments (RCTs) in South Asia and West Africa, and his completed projects are available as working papers and articles in international peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics as well as inter-disciplinary journals such as Nature Scientific Reports. He was awarded the Albert Berry Prize at the Canadian Economic Association (CEA) Conference for the best Paper in Development Economics in 2016. Currently he is a J-PAL affiliate professor and a fellow of IZA and GLO.

Kanako Yamashita-Allen is a Senior Health Specialist in the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice of the World Bank. She has led health/human capital investment operations and advisory work in southern Africa and South Asia. She has over 25 years of experience in the health sector working with governments, NGOs and the private sector in the health sector covering maternal and child health, adolescent health, HIV/AIDS, quality of care and community engagement. 

Alaka Holla is Program Manager of the World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund. She received her PhD in Economics from Brown University in 2007 and completed post-doctoral work at Harvard University and Innovations for Poverty Action. After joining the World Bank, she has worked in both research and operational settings across a diverse set of country contexts. Her research has focused on the quality of service delivery, discrimination, early childhood development and education, and cost analysis.