IFS
PRESS RELEASE
THE INSTITUTE FOR FISCAL STUDIES
7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
020 7291 4800, mailbox@ifs.org.uk, www.ifs.org.uk
Embargoed until 13.00,
Tuesday 20 January 2004
Contact: Emma Hyman on
020 7291 4800
Education and nutrition for children in developing countries
How should international financial institutions target funds to alleviate poverty and encourage development? Which
programmes deliver the best results? New research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies investigates the effectiveness of
a programme aimed at improving the life chances of poor children in Latin America and hence fostering prosperity
for the future in developing countries. If successful, as preliminary analysis indicates, the programme could provide a
blueprint for other countries to improve the lives of their poorest citizens.
The programme, inspired by similar initiatives in Mexico, targets the poorest families in small towns and villages
in Colombia and began in 2002 with funding from the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank. It
aims to enable families to feed their children a healthier diet and to encourage parents to send them to school for
longer. In exchange for cash payments (intended to be spent on food), mothers of children under 5 are asked to take
their children for regular medical check-ups and vaccinations. Mothers themselves need to attend classes on hygiene,
vaccination and contraception. For older children (aged between 6 and 17), mothers receive payments if their
children attend school regularly.
In collaboration with a research institute in Colombia, IFS is evaluating the results of the programme, by carrying out
a survey of the 50 ‘treatment’ towns and villages and 50 similar ‘control’ areas, where the programme is not taking
place. The success of the programme can be gauged by comparing the two sets of areas to see whether significant
improvements are found in those where the programme is taking place.
The dataset that has been collected provides a unique insight into the lives of this very poor population; it represents
a more detailed and wide-ranging picture of a developing country’s population than has been collected before. That
the database has been compiled at all is a significant achievement in an area rife with conflict: this is illustrated by
the fact that, of the 70 interviewers who went out to the towns and villages, every one was held at gunpoint by
guerrillas at least once.
Some of the features the data show about the target population are:
•
The average family size is seven, and families have on average less than $1 per day to spend on each person.
•
Because of civil war and migration, the age structure of the population is very uneven, showing a large drop
between the ages of 18 and 35 and between the ages of 0 and 5.
•
Around 60% of a household’s budget is spent on food, compared with 15% in the UK.
•
10% of children suffer from severe malnutrition and 33% are at risk of malnutrition.
•
At any one time around 13% of children are suffering from diarrhoea and 42% from some kind of respiratory
disease.
Preliminary results of the survey show that the programme does seem to be successful. Positive findings include:
•
School enrolment rates for older children increased significantly: in urban areas by 13 percentage points and in
rural areas by 5.5 percentage points. The disparity may be explained by the lower availability of secondary
schools in rural areas. There was no significant increase among younger children, not surprisingly as attendance
was already high among this group.
•
There was a substantial change in children’s food intakes. For instance, in urban areas the number of times
children ate meat went from 2 to 3 times a week, and the number of times they ate vegetables more than
doubled.
•
There is strong evidence that changes in food intakes resulted in significant increases in children’s weight. In
rural areas, for instance, children’s weight increases on average by 2.5%. This result is particularly impressive
considering the relatively short period the programme has been operating.
The collection of a follow-up survey has just been completed in December and there are plans for an additional
follow up in a year's time. These data will allow a much more detailed and reliable evaluation of the effects of the
programme.
Professor Orazio Attanasio, one of the authors of the report, said: “The evaluation of Familias en Acción is
important, not just for Colombia, but to help us understand how developing countries can best target valuable
resources to improve the prospects for their poorest children.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1.
More information about the programme, Familias en Acción, and the evaluation can be found in the IFS briefing note, ‘Early evaluation
of a new nutrition and education programme in Colombia’. Please contact IFS for an advance copy.
2.
The full preliminary report, ‘Baseline report on the evaluation of Familias en Acción’, Attanasio et al., Institute for Fiscal Studies,
November 2003, can be downloaded from http://www.ifs.org.uk/edepo/wps/familias_accion.pdf
3.
The research will be launched at a lunchtime seminar at 12.30 pm on Tuesday 20th January at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.