The international Young Lives study follows 12,000 young people in Ethiopia, Peri, Vietnam, and India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) to look at the consequences of poverty and inequality.

1. Growing with Young Lives
Past, Present and Future
University of Oxford, March 28th

2. Young Lives: 20 years of impact and engagement
Shifting the global
debate on
opportunities for
tackling
undernutrition
Influencing
national policies
to address child
marriage in India
Promoting
curriculum
development to
deliver ‘21st
Century Skills’
in Vietnam
Strengthening
early learning
policies

3. 20 years of surveys and research
 In-person surveys: 2002-
2019
 COVID-19 phone surveys
in 2020/21

4. A lifespan from birth to adulthood

5. Covid-19: Diverse Experiences
 Five calls during drastically
different COVID-19 trajectories
 We reached approximately
10,000 young people (78-83%
of the 2001 sample) – how
could we do it?

6. Researching the pandemic 1
How did we reach the un-reachable?

7. Methodological Innovation – Local Guides
Tassew Woldehanna
Principal investigator
YL, Ethiopia

8. Researching the pandemic 1
How did we find the unfindable?

9. Methodological Innovation - GPS
Nguyen Thu Huong
Policy Officer
YL, Vietnam

10. Young Lives at Work Phone Survey Call 5
Intersecting crises are
 threatening progress against the Sustainable
Development Goals
 continuing to derail prospects for a generation
of young people
…… the time to act is now

11. Global Goal 1: No Poverty
 Poorest households
and vulnerable groups
report highest levels
of poverty
7%
19%
4%
20%
1%
11%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Other
castes
Scheduled
Castes and
Tribes
First
language
is spanish
First
language
is other
than
Spanish
Majority
ethnic
group
Minority
ethnic
groups
India Peru Vietnam
Call 5 Headline Finding Percentage who report they are poor/destitute

12. Global Goal 2: Zero Hunger
 More families are worried about
running out of food in 2021
 Vulnerable groups more likely to
actually run out of food
Call 5 Headline Finding

13. Global Goal 2: Zero Hunger
 More families are worried about
running out of food in 2021
 Vulnerable groups more likely to
actually run out of food
Call 5 Headline Finding
47%
 Severe droughts in Southern
Ethiopia have triggered
severe hunger
13. Climate Action
of families in drought-
affected SNNP region ran
out of food in 2021

14. Global Goal 4 : Quality Education
Call 5 Headline Finding
 School closures and a
digital divide are widening
educational inequalities and
reducing the quality of
education

15. Global Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
Call 5 Headline Findings
 Unequal vaccination rates are putting
those in poorer, rural households and
vulnerable groups at greater risk of
COVID-19
3%
57%
62%
65%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Ethiopia Peru Vietnam India
% with at least one vaccine, Oct-Dec 2021

16. Global Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
Call 5 Headline Findings
 Unequal vaccination rates are putting
those in poorer, rural households and
vulnerable groups at greater risk of
COVID-19
 High levels of mental health issues
are still being reported by young
people as the pandemic progresses
 In Peru, reported rates of mental
health issues remain alarmingly high
 In Vietnam, the number of people
suffering from depression (12%) had
doubled compared to the previous
year

17. Global Goal 5: Gender Equality
Call 5 Headline Finding
 Physical domestic violence
increased significantly during the
2020 lockdowns, for both women
and men, and more dramatically
among those who had been a
victim in past
 2.5 in 10 of those who
reported past violence in
the previous survey in Peru
reported an increase in
domestic violence during
lockdown

18. Researching the pandemic 2
How did we ask the un-askable

19. Methodological Innovation – List randomisation
Alan Sanchez
Principle Investigator
YL, Peru.

20. Global Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Call 5 Headline Finding
 Increasing gender
employment gaps are
undermining overall recovery
in employment rates.
 New evidence suggests that
the quality of jobs may be
deteriorating.
39
49
11
24
14
18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Dec-Feb 2020 Oct-Dec 2021
Percentage
points India Peru Vietnam
Gender employment
gaps: pre-pandemic vs
call 5

21. Global Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Call 5 Headline Finding
 Biggest concern in Ethiopia is the conflict
between the government and Tigray forces.
 Data from just after the conflict started found that
rates of anxiety were already three times higher
than 2-3 months before.
 Young people in Amhara (closest to the Tigray
conflict) experienced the largest fall in
employment between March and December 2021

22. Global Goal 10 : Reduced Inequalities
Call 5 Headline Finding
Larger increase in
poverty among
vulnerable groups
Vulnerable groups
more likely to run
out of food in
2021
Increasing gender
employment gaps
Higher education
dropout among those
with no internet
 Those that were already disadvantaged before the pandemic are experiencing the
worst socio-economic effects.

23. Researching the pandemic 3
How did we reach the most vulnerable?

24. Methodological Innovation – Vulnerable Groups
Renu Singh
Country Director
YL, India

25. Recent YL headlines, find out more
Visit our website: www.younglives.org.uk
Access Young Lives data:
Follow us on social media:
@yloxford
YoungLivesStudy
Young Lives
Special thanks to the children and families who participate in
Young Lives, without whom this study would not exist.

26. Young Lives Webinar Part 2

27. What next for the children of the Millennium?

28. Young Lives: Research Streams
 Research has followed the trajectories of our
cohorts from pre-school to employment
 Current focus areas: employment and skills
development, funded by
 UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development
Office (FCDO)
 Old Dart Foundation
 Echidna Giving
 NIH
 Other smaller projects (health)
 Packard Foundation
 MRC
EDUCATION
AND SKILLS
EMPLOYMENT

29. Young Lives: Looking forward
 Expand the research agenda to respond
to:
 The changing lives of our cohort
 21st Century challenges: COVID-19
Conflict and Climate Change
 Opportunities to collect richer data
 Enhanced policy impact of research,
building on our networks

30. Research Streams
EDUCATION
AND SKILLS
EMPLOYMENT
HEALTH AND
WELL-BEING

31. Research Streams
EDUCATION
AND SKILLS
EMPLOYMENT
HEALTH AND
WELL-BEING
FAMILY LIVES

32. Research Streams
EDUCATION
AND SKILLS
EMPLOYMENT
HEALTH AND
WELL-BEING
FAMILY LIVES

33. Growing Young Lives: Past, Present and Future
1. Following the Young Lives
cohort to adulthood (Round 7
and Round 8):
 Household surveys
 Qualitative data collection
2. Setting up a new cohort study,
the Covid-19 Cohort study, 20
years after the Millennium
cohort.

34. Young Lives: Partnership Opportunities
We are seeking like-minded organisations to partner with us
over the next five years.
Specific funding opportunities include;
Tailored research and policy engagement on topics of mutual interest
Following `children-of-the-children’ to understand cycles of poverty
Understanding long-term impacts of ‘shocks’ and inequality

35. A big thank you to Young Lives’ Funders