Publication: Children and Youth in Crisis : Protecting and Promoting Human Development in Times of Economic Shocks
Date
2012
ISSN
Published
2012
Author(s)
Lundberg, Mattias
Wuermli, Alice
Abstract
Motivated by the need to understand how
crises affect human development in diverse segments of the
population, this book explores how individuals and
households cope with the changes and stresses induced by
economic crises. It examines how these impacts and coping
mechanisms differ across cultural and institutional contexts
and looks at how best to protect the most vulnerable from
lasting harm and the degradation of human capital. Financial
crises, at both the global and the national level, are
ubiquitous. Reinhart and Rogoff (2009) provide the
invaluable lesson that over the past 800 years a major
crisis has happened roughly once every 20 years. This
pattern raises concern about the human impacts of crises,
especially among more vulnerable people in developing
countries. During the most recent global financial crisis,
international organizations, bilateral development agencies,
and civil society organizations all expressed concern about
the ongoing 'human crisis.' The global community
has become alarmed that the crisis could reverse recent
progress in poverty reduction and the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals. Human development is at the
core of economic development. Human capital accumulation at
all stages from the antenatal environment through early
childhood and adolescence helps facilitate the transition to
a healthy and productive adulthood and break the
intergenerational transmission of poverty. Shortfalls or
setbacks at any stage of the life course may have severe
consequences for individual development as well as for the
growth and development of successful communities. The work
presented in this volume deepens our understanding of how
shocks affect children and youth in two ways. First, the
authors aggregate the evidence on various developmental
outcomes across developmental stages from conception to
adulthood. Second, the authors show that the impact of
crises will differ according to the social and environmental
contexts in which the child or young person grows and that
shocks can in turn affect those contexts. The authors hope
to understand the short- and long-term impacts of crises,
and whether we can identify particular protective factors
that support children's recovery from the worst ravages
of the crisis. The focus on transmission mechanisms, the
pathways of influence, leads to a set of broad policy
recommendations for enhancing both protection and recovery.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Lundberg, Mattias; Wuermli, Alice. 2012. Children and Youth in Crisis : Protecting and Promoting Human Development in Times of Economic Shocks. Directions in Development; Human Development. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9374 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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