Growing Up in Poverty: Recent findings from Young Lives is a multi-country study following over 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam over 15 years to understand childhood poverty. The study collects data through surveys and qualitative research on children's education, health, work and aspirations. While countries have increased access to services, findings show unequal opportunities to learn based on household wealth and location. Children aspire to continue education but many factors like gender, rural residence and poverty influence whether they can achieve their goals. The long-term study provides evidence for policies to promote more equitable development and achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

1. Growing Up in Poverty:
Recent findings from Young Lives
Ginny Morrow, Senior Research Officer /
Deputy Director, Young Lives
March 2015

2. YOUNG LIVES
• Multi-disciplinary study that aims to:
- improve understanding of childhood poverty
- provide evidence to improve policies & practice
• Following nearly 12,000 children in 4 countries: Ethiopia; India
(Andhra Pradesh & Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, over 15 years
• Now covers 11-year period: first data collected in 2002, with 4 survey
rounds and 4 waves of qualitative research with nested sample of 50
children, and survey of Young Lives children’s schools
• Two age cohorts in each country:
- 2,000 children born in 2000-01 (Younger Cohort)
- 1,000 children born in 1994-95 (Older Cohort)
• Pro-poor sample: 20 sites in each country, reflecting country diversity
(rural-urban, diverse livelihoods, ethnicity)
• Collaboration
- partners in each country
- UNICEF Office of Research
- UK Data Archive (data as a public good)

3. AGES: 1 5 8 12 15
YOUNGERCOHORT
Following 2,000 children
OLDERCOHORT
Following 1,000 children
AGES: 8 12 15 19 22
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5
2002 2006 2009 2013 2016
VISUALISING THIS
Same age children at
different time points
Qualitative nested sample
1 2 3 4
Linked
school surveys

4. • School effectiveness and learning: including
enrolment, learning, progression, retention,
relevance, violence
• Nutrition and health: including stunting (and
recovery), food security, access to water & sanitation
• Youth and development/adolescence: gender,
marriage & fertility, work and/or education, violence
CURRENT PRIORITIES

5. TEN YEARS IN CHILDREN’S LIVES
• The economies of all four Young Lives
countries grew rapidly in the first
decade of the 21st Century
• This growth was accompanied by broad
infrastructural improvements and
increased service access (associated
with the MDGs), e.g.
– increased external investment, road
and communications infrastructure
– primary school enrolment = near
universal in 3 of our countries, and
rapidly increasing in Ethiopia
– Social protection: MGNREGA in India;
Juntos in Peru; PSNP in Ethiopia
– Health insurance in Vietnam, Peru and
in India; Health Extension Workers in
Ethiopia
58
79
74
93
37
55
60
94
29
62
2006
2013
2002
2013
2002
2013
2002
2013
2006
2013
Piped
WaterSanitation
Flush
toiletElectricityInternet
Peru

6. ASPIRATIONS ARE HIGH, WILL THEY BE MET?
• In 2006 between 75% and 90% of 12-year-olds aspired to vocational
training or university, remaining high at age 15 and 19
• Modest differences by wealth quintile
• Children want better jobs than their parents:
“We’re not going to suffer like this in the mud ...it’s better that I
go and study” (Marta, age 15, Peru)
“If one can learn and study hard, they will always have a good job
and at the end that can change their family’s life” (Fatuma, age 15,
Ethiopia)
“We see our parents working… they work in the fields, and work
hard daily… we feel we should not be like that” (Harika, age 16,
rural Telangana)
• The ‘best age’ for marriage and child-bearing is mid-20s

7. WHAT HAPPENED BY AGE 19?
• Substantial numbers are still studying at age 19 (often combined
with working)
• But unsurprisingly, it’s young people from better-off families, with
higher parental education, and in urban areas who stay longer in
education
• Gender differences in 3 out of 4 countries: boys much more likely
to remain studying in AP and Telangana; girls in Ethiopia and
Vietnam
• Poorer girls and those living in rural areas are more likely to be
married and to have had a child by age 19
Married Had a child
37% – AP&T India 24% - Peru
25% - Peru 21% - AP&T India
19% - Vietnam 12% - Vietnam
13% - Ethiopia 9% - Ethiopia

8. SCHOOLING - A CRISIS IN LEARNING?
• Assumption that education will lead to social mobility
-> But will it?
‐ Improved enrolment rates are a success, but don’t always
lead to good learning
‐ Learning influenced by household characteristics, not just
the school
‐ Unequal opportunities to learn
‐ Quality of schooling
What does this mean for achieving the SDGs?

9. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY
Cognitive gaps are in place before children enter school, but the
ways these widen for different groups varies with the impact of
school system:
- Vietnam: performs better and more equalising
- AP & Telangana: lower standards and widening gaps
‐ Early years are central foundation for later learning
‐ Tackling household poverty supports education
‐ Greater focus on school effectiveness
‐ Potential to capitalise on school for other purposes, e.g. school
feeding programmes
‐ Addressing gender disadvantages requires both policy targeted at
children directly and engaging with constraints which shape
household decision-making

10. • Poverty is associated with intersecting inequalities and
disadvantage
• A life-course approach:
‐ Early childhood: ECD services, access & impact for poorer
children
‐ Middle childhood: Potential for learning with schools as
delivery platform for health interventions (keeping children in
school)
‐ Adolescence: under-recognised second critical window
• Potential of cohort studies to:
‐ enhance understanding of how outcomes are shaped
‐ align across countries to increase power
‐ improve capacity to use evidence for policy.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SDGS AND DATA REVOLUTION

11. Young Lives children and their parents/caregivers as well as
community leaders, teachers, health workers and others in
communities
Fieldworkers and supervisors, data managers, researchers and
country directors in each country
Oxford team
Funders: DFID, DGIS, Irish Aid, Oak Foundation, Bernard Van
Leer Foundation, Hewlett, Gates, GCC
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS

12. www.younglives.org.uk
• methodology and research papers
• datasets (UK Data Archive)
• publications
• child profiles and photos
• e-newsletter
FINDING OUT MORE