Overview
Human capital accumulation is a powerful driver of development that can protect people’s wellbeing from the consequences of extreme events. It is critical for resilience and delivers large return on their investments. The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) is currently undertaking crucial methodological research to improve measurement of education outcomes, childcare arrangements and early childhood development.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a concept defined as learning poverty – children who are unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10 -especially among the most vulnerable. This reality will have long-lasting effects in this generation. Even though evidence suggests that pedagogical innovations, such as standardized lessons or technology-based learning can improve student’s achievements (Kremer and Holla, 2009), there are still important questions about the learning process, for which the evidence is scarce.
Expanding access to quality childcare has the potential to yield multi-generational impacts by improving parents’ economic empowerment, child outcomes, family welfare, business productivity and overall economic growth. However, there is limited data on childcare available across Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), particularly for children below the age of 3, which limits the assessment of childcare services in developing countries.
Work Areas
1. Education
According to a 2024 UNESCO’s estimate, approximately 40% of the countries in the world are not measuring children’s learning levels. The usual cross-sectional surveys conducted by National Statistical Offices (NSOs) collect information about school attendance and enrollment, but they do not include any learning measurement. And if learning assessments are introduced in household surveys, they may be fraught with subjectivity introduced by interviewer effects, which affect the reliability of the estimates.
The LSMS is working on the testing and development of survey protocols to incorporate direct assessments of learning in household surveys, with the objective of making them more suitable to implement in large-scale surveys, in addition to reducing interviewers’ effects.
2. Childcare
Our team is currently conducting a randomized survey experiment to develop methods to collect data on childcare in developing countries, which is particularly challenging due to the existence of childcare informal arrangements. In addition, parental unawareness of childcare options can affect the demand for childcare services.
It is why, in partnership with the World Bank Invest in Childcare Initiative, we are conducting a cross-country global study on childcare in more than 10 countries to understand to what extent childcare is currently available, affordable and of good quality, in addition to meeting families’ needs. This research will identify opportunities to expand childcare access and improve systems using standalone situational assessments in each of the countries.
The package of tools and data collected will generate comparable data on childcare across the countries participating in the study, with the objective of increasing the understanding of the childcare sector globally, as well as its potential to grow.