Publication:
Early Childhood Development: Situation Analysis for Malawi

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF Revd (870.1 KB)
1,977 downloads
Published
2016-05
ISSN
Date
2016-06-21
Editor(s)
Abstract
Teenage pregnancies have potential negative consequences on the next generation. Children born to adolescent mothers are particularly at risk in terms of health, nutrition, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Evidence shows that the early years – especially the first 1,000 days – are crucially important for lifetime health, learning, and productivity. Particularly for the most vulnerable children and families, early childhood development (ECD) is a high return investment. This policy brief presents evidence on the health, nutrition and overall development of children in Malawi with a focus on those born to adolescent mothers. Analysis of issues such as infant and child mortality, malnutrition, incidence of illness, healthcare seeking behaviors, protective practices, and late entry for school, pre-school experience and development are discussed.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Bakilana, Anne; Moucheraud, Corrina; McConnell, Christin; Hasan, Rifat. 2016. Early Childhood Development: Situation Analysis for Malawi. Policy Brief: Malawi;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24574 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Beginning a Family and Adopting a Healthy Lifestyle
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05) Hasan, Rifat; Moucheraud, Corrina; Bakilana, Anne
    Decisions during youth have great long-term impacts on human development, which is key to poverty alleviation and economic development. During adolescence, two of the primary transitions are beginning a family and adopting a healthy lifestyle. Youth face many choices and challenges around these key decisions, such as when to initiate sex, when to marry, when to have children, and whether to engage in risky behaviors- all of which affect their future health and future opportunities. Consequences of these early decisions can have long-lasting effects on adolescents and their communities, potentially increasing public health costs and depleting human capital. This policy brief discusses a situation analysis of adolescent girls in Malawi with respect to these transitions and highlights the challenges they face. Specifically, issues of reproductive health (fertility, maternal health, use of family planning), early marriage, use of family planning, nutrition and risky behaviors are analyzed and presented.
  • Publication
    Beginning a Family and Adopting a Healthy Lifestyle
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05) Moucheraud, Corrina; Hasan, Rifat
    Decisions during youth have great long-term impacts on human development, which is key to poverty alleviation and economic development. During adolescence, two of the primary transitions are beginning a family and adopting a healthy lifestyle. Youth face many choices and challenges around these key decisions, such as when to initiate sex, when to marry, when to have children, and whether to engage in risky behaviors – all of which affect their future health and future opportunities. Consequences of these early decisions can have long-lasting effects on adolescents and their communities, potentially increasing public health costs and depleting human capital. This note briefly presents program and policy approaches that have been implemented in different contexts for addressing these two key transition periods of youth: beginning a family and adopting a healthy lifestyle. It concludes by presenting a set of programmatic lessons and investment recommendations based on the global evidence.
  • Publication
    Early Childhood Development
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05) Nadeau, Sophie; Hasan, Rifat
    Early Childhood Development (ECD) is a holistic concept that refers to the physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and linguistic development of young children until the time they transition to primary school. This policy brief highlights that developmental gaps in the early years of a child’s life do not narrow by themselves over time, are likely to be particularly severe for children born to teenage mothers, and lead to costly consequences for individuals, families, and societies. In turn, this policy brief also documents that strong evidence exist on the significant benefits that quality ECD interventions yield in both the short and longer terms. Different types of ECD interventions are most relevant and are complementary at different times of a child’s development. For example, interventions to promote infant and child health and to reduce malnutrition are most effective in the 1,000-day window from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday, and programs that enhance both early stimulation and nutrition are more likely to generate long-lasting impacts than nutrition alone. Strong evidence also exists on the positive impacts of high quality center-based programs for young children (i.e. daycares and preschools), including in low and middle-income countries, and these types of programs can also generate positive impacts for other family members, including caregivers and siblings. Finally, providing cash transfers to families can be an effective way to enhance the ECD outcomes of the poorest children, especially when combined with specific health, nutrition, and early stimulation interventions. In sum, this policy brief provides an overview of why early childhood is a critical period of human development and of the several types of ECD interventions that have been proven effective to improve children’s development and life-long prospects.
  • Publication
    Adolescent Girls in Zambia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11) Naudeau, Sophie; Hasan, Rifat; Bakilana, Anne
    Adolescence is a time of transitions that foster both challenges and opportunities. Indeed, choices made during adolescence not only have immediate consequences but also greatly influence the economic opportunities, health outcomes, and skill sets attained later in life, and yet it is the same period when social norms create pathways largely defined by gender. Poverty and ethnic minority status can further magnify gender discrepancies for youth worldwide, as reductions in household spending on education, health care, and nutrition are often more likely to affect adolescent girls than boys. In Zambia, adolescents make up 24% of the total population, a substantial proportion that is expected to become higher than neighboring countries if current trends continue. The high prevalence of child marriage and teenage pregnancy among Zambian girls greatly contributes to the high fertility and population growth trends, and is also closely interrelated with a range of economic and socio-cultural determinants that perpetuate a vicious cycle for the poorest and most vulnerable girls and have costly consequences for them and for the nation as a whole. In order to initiate the potential for a demographic dividend, Zambia will need to initiate a demographic transition. Reducing child marriage and teenage pregnancy can significantly contribute to the fertility declines needed to accelerate this demographic transition and would lead to better life outcomes for adolescent girls and better opportunities for the next generation. Accordingly, this series of policy briefs focuses on four key areas of interventions (or pillars) as follows: (i) maintaining girls in school; (ii) equipping out-of-school girls with skills; and (iii) beginning a family and supporting girls to adopt healthy lifestyles; and (iv) addressing the child development needs of children born to teenage mothers.
  • Publication
    Keeping Girls in School
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06-17) McConnell, Christin; Mupuwaliywa, Mupuwaliywa
    International evidence indicates that keeping girls in school positively impacts their life trajectory and benefits the well-being of the next generation. Malawi has made progress in increasing overall enrollment rates, but additional effort is still needed to ensure that adolescent girls stay in school and complete a quality education. Starting in the upper grades of primary school, adolescent girls are more likely to drop out of school than their male counterparts with pregnancy, early marriage, and school fees frequently cited as the main reasons. One of the key challenges in Malawi will be to both focus on girls before they reach puberty and ensure that they get the support they need to complete primary school and successfully transition to secondary school. Meanwhile, adolescent boys will also need support and guidance to invest in their own education and to value the education of their female peers as a way to build stronger families and communities and break the inter-generational cycle of poverty. The Government of Malawi will need to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of its policy and programs, including those by partners, to scale and consolidate accordingly in order to avoid a scattered approach.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022
    (Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank
    The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    The Journey Ahead
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31) Bossavie, Laurent; Garrote Sánchez, Daniel; Makovec, Mattia
    The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.