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The social realities of making evidence matter in development
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The social realities of making evidence matter in development

Knowledge and evidence for policy and practice matters in any context. But critical scrutiny of the evidence to policy process is particularly important in development contexts, where knowledge is often produced or brokered by external actors. Launched today, the edited volume Social Realities of Knowledge for Development illustrates the varied and complex pathways through which research, knowledge or evidence may (or may not) be taken up by policymakers and practitioners. The collection provides diverse examples of the research to policy/practice relationship -- from context-specific action research, to researchers engaging with embedded, national policy institutions or global processes. The central message that emerges across different contexts is that social relations rather than the 'technical' aspects of evidence are the critical factor in influence or uptake.  his is not to argue against the value of good evidence: rather that good evidence alone is generally not enough. Acknowledging the social context and content of evidence Such an argument should not surprise many in the large community of knowledge producers, brokers and users operating at the research-policy interface. Shifts in ideas about what type of research or evidence is useful for development have seen externally imposed models and theory-based policy prescriptions challenged by stronger attention to participation and the value of local knowledge, and to co-production processes which engage key stakeholders in knowledge generation. social relations rather than the 'technical' aspects of evidence are the critical factor in influence or uptakeParadoxically, however, greater acknowledgement of the social process involved in bridging gaps between knowledge producers and users is now often accompanied by a loss of social content in the forms of knowledge that are most highly valued as evidence. What constitutes good evidence has increasingly been defined by a particular set of claims to scientific rigour; methodological advances have moved the field towards clinical-style trials and quantitative experimental methods (although not without pushback), often accompanied by claims to value-free objectivity but at the expense of attention to messy, contested, complex social realities. This tension plays out within many development organisations as demonstrated in this collection which brings valuable insights from a number of ESRC-DFID funded research projects, and from a wide range of organisations including MSF, Oxfam, Practical Action, the Overseas Development Institute, the African Population and Health Research Centre and Makerere University. A welcome commitment to rigorous evidence and data as a basis for policy and programming is increasingly demonstrated by such development organisations and operational agencies. As the chapter on 'How collaboration, early engagement and collective ownership increase research impact' by Mike Wessells and colleagues demonstrates with reference to a UNICEF programme, this can have impressive results when the right actors are aligned. Avoiding a narrow view of evidence as 'what works' The risk, however, is that a relatively narrow or instrumental view of evidence of 'what works' for programming and for delivering results within a defined time frame is prioritised over other forms of knowledge. Undervalued evidence may include qualitative research findings, or research with less immediate or practical application but which may nonetheless be relevant for framing and guiding policy choices, or to support scaling up, transferability and institutionalisation of interventions. All are of course necessary and complementary, but may compete for resources and space in the discourse. While acknowledging a growing body of mixed methods and transdisciplinary work that aims to rise above such critiques, the current evidence-based, data-driven, results focus tends towards the narrow 'what works' view of evidence. Research institutions at the intersection with policy or practice, located for example within a large development agency as in the case of UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, are spaces which potentially play an important role in countering the tendency towards this instrumental view of evidence. Such organisations illustrate the challenge of the 'embedded' institution, attempting to balance a degree of autonomy and independence of research with the needs and demands of their organisation -- as illustrated also in the case from India by Gita Sen and partners in their article: 'Translating health research to policy: Breaking through the impermeability'. The 'embedded autonomy' of such centres can be key to keeping alive the critical challenge function of research; bringing in fresh ideas and innovation, exposing blind spots and biases, or moderating pendulum swings in ideas and ideologies that may be driven by internal or external changes. Among development agencies, such centres are few and under threat - whether from tighter budgets or through the erosion of their autonomy - but their position within a trusted agency with country-level presence means that they can play a critical role in the eco-system of trusted development knowledge actors. Fostering the knowledge to policy interface Within such large operational agencies, as in government bureaucracies, the skills and capacities needed to use research and knowledge effectively, to move from data-driven and evidence-based decision-making to using evidence to inform choices, are often limited. Investment in such research and policy analysis capacities - particularly within national institutions in the global South - is a critical element for creating an effective knowledge-policy interface but has been largely neglected by donors. Such a funding shift would recognise that evidence is only one among many inputs to decision-making; that policymakers need to make informed choices and act even when evidence is imperfect or data lacking; and that co-production is not always possible with the actors who can take change forward. Brokers will rarely be neutral, but will bring a particular stance and allegiance, while policymakers will also invite research and evidence around particular positions. Above all, as illustrated throughout the collection, relationships of trust create the conditions within which evidence can inform and influence. This publication is a timely contribution to the growing critique of the more technocratic evidence- and results-based discourse of recent years, reminding us of how and by whom knowledge is constructed as evidence and used to frame and influence particular positions. In this respect, while challenging the dominant narrative of neutral data-driven evidence that drives policy and practice, it illustrates how the construction of knowledge is in itself part of the process of social change. Sarah Cook is Director of the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti.  Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website. This blog was originally published by the Impact Initiative  .  
What can Harry Potter teach us about multidimensional child poverty?
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What can Harry Potter teach us about multidimensional child poverty?

What does it mean for a child to be poor? At first glance the question seems trivial, but when you ponder it for a moment, the answer is not so easily formulated. Does it mean being hungry, not having clean clothes? Is it connected with having to earn a living or being left alone? In a recent podcast, I talked about the importance of measuring child poverty, and the importance of going beyond the measurement of family income in order to accurately define it. I used one of the most beloved children's book characters in a generation to explain my point. At the beginning of the popular Harry Potter series, Harry is living with his aunt and uncle, in a family which is, in all respects, wealthy. They own a detached house in Surrey and Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle, is a businessman who comfortably supports his wife and Dudley, their son. Dudley has everything: a vast amount of toys and video games, two bedrooms (one just for the toys). He also enjoys his parents' seemingly endless tolerance for his terrible behaviour. Should the UK census arrive to assess their poverty status, this household would certainly be defined as rich. Yet Harry, who lives in the same house, is a deprived child. He sleeps under the stairs, is forced to do a lot of chores and his aunt and uncle mistreat him. Not only is his status different from that of the two adults in the family, but also from that of his cousin, a child of similar age. In the same books, we encounter the Weasley family. It is frequently observed that they are poor, according to the wizarding world, in monetary standards. Yet all their seven children have food, clothing (if not always fashionable or new), school books, and all are well cared for and loved. Clearly, they are not suffering from deprivation. In the story, Harry discovers that he's a Wizard, and that his parents left him a considerable amount of money. In the wizarding world Harry then becomes somewhat affluent. He can treat his friends to butterbeer and chocolate frogs, and fancy Christmas presents. However, when he returns home for the holidays, very little has changed in his house: he returns to a life of great discomfort and little agency. And this situation continues each summer until he turns seventeen. This detail of the Potter series is crucial, because it highlights another fundamental element of child poverty: children's agency is often limited.This detail of the Potter series is crucial, because it highlights another fundamental element of child poverty: children's agency is often limited. Children are dependent on their guardians and are bound by their legal status in relation to them. Poverty, especially for children, can have much to do with situation and relations, with possibility and agency, as much as it is about means. The reality of poverty is far from magical for the 385 million children living in extreme poverty, or the 247 million African children who are multidimensionally poor. Or all the other millions of children for whom we have very little information. At the UNICEF Office of Research, we work to assess child poverty using the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA): a methodology we developed to measure multidimensional child poverty that aims at keeping the child at the centre of the analysis. A 14 year old girl stands outside her house where she lives with her husband and her mother-in-law in the Mara region in Tanzania. She was married when she was a little over 13 years old and managed to finish grade 7.Working with local UNICEF Offices and their partners, we define specific measures for the particular national context. For example, what it means to be a deprived child in Tanzania, or Armenia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina? In Tanzania, 78 percent of children are deprived. In Armenia it is 64 percent. The context changes, but we can find some common traits. We know that these children live primarily in rural areas, in families that work in agriculture and with less educated parents: this is true wherever we looked, in the Caucasus as well as in eastern Africa. Believe it or not many of these children live in Harry Potter-style poverty. Their homes do not lack monetary means, but they often lack access to infrastructure, space and time to play, and adequate care. This share of children is 48% in Tanzania, 36% in Armenia. It can vary across countries, but it is never irrelevant. For these reasons, it is vital that we step up our efforts to look beyond income to measure the multiple deprivations of child poverty in a comprehensive, child-centric way. Not every child can inherit a magical fortune, but we can make sure every child has the same chance at becoming a wizard. Lucia Ferrone is a consultant with UNICEF Innocenti working on the Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (MODA) project, a tool which helps researchers and policy makers to better map and define the impact of poverty in children's lives. Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website.
Children bear the cost of extreme weather: New evidence from Mongolia
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Children bear the cost of extreme weather: New evidence from Mongolia

Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and more frequent in many regions of the world. From increasing precipitation and cyclones in high latitudes and tropical regions, to intensifying droughts in southern Africa, this trend is likely to continue throughout the 21st century. Weather shocks can have long-lasting effects on children's health and education. Hence, these shocks can reduce countries' levels of education and economic growth in the long term. Poor people in developing regions of the world often bear the highest costs of these events. This is mainly due to limited social protection and insurance against weather risks, combined with lack of economic opportunities. Extreme winters threaten herding households Most studies on the impact of extreme weather events focus on droughts or rainfall shocks in tropical or dry regions. However, cold shocks in the form of extremely harsh winters can also be damaging for children. While affecting all regions with continental climate and large seasonal variations in temperature, such as Russia, inland China or the Himalayas, these shocks are especially relevant in Mongolia. Children who were of school age during the shock and lived in severely affected districts were  significantly less likely to have completed mandatory educationOver the past two decades, Mongolia has been  hit by two extremely severe winters, which caused mass livestock mortality. The phenomenon of harsh winters causing mass livestock mortality is referred to as dzud in Mongolian language. Extreme winters are characterized by exceptionally cold temperature, excessive snow, lack of precipitation during the previous summer and fluctuations in temperature that cause the snow to melt and then ice over, thus hindering animal grazing. The two recent dzud events can be seen in Figure 1, which shows livestock development in Mongolia over the period 1991-2011. The first event spanned three consecutive winters during the period 1999-2002, while the second occurred in the single winter of 2009/10. Both shocks dramatically threatened livelihoods among  the Mongolian population. Indeed, for about a  third of Mongolians, animals represent the primary source of nutrition and income. Many herders lost a substantial portion of their herd during the  dzud disasters, often  falling into situations of food insecurity and poverty.   Figure 1:  Annual livestock mortality in Mongolia, 1991-2011 National-level data shown. Only deaths of adult livestock are considered.Children among the most affected by extreme winters Two recent papers studied the consequences of extreme winters on children's health and education, respectively. As it is often the case when extreme weather hits, the studies found  that children were severely affected by the weather shocks. This calls for special attention from UNICEF, which can play a leading role in supporting government policies and programmes to protect children before other extreme weather events occur. The first paper specifically studied the impact of the 2009/10 dzud on the health of children younger than 7 years old, as measured by the height-for-age indicator. Results show that children who were born or in utero during the 2009/10 catastrophic winter and lived in districts that were severely hit by the shock have significantly worse health, compared to same-age children living in less affected districts. The second paper examines the impact of extreme weather events on education. The study finds that individuals who were of school age during the shock and lived in severely affected districts were  significantly less likely to have completed mandatory education, compared to peers in less affected districts. The effects are verified for both the 1999-2002 and the 2009/2010 winters. They are also large in magnitude and persist in the long term, up to about ten years after the shock. This is particularly striking in a middle-income country like Mongolia, where there are no tuition fees for basic education. Enumerators measure the height and weight of children in a Mongolian household.In both studies, the effects only hit children from households that were engaged in herding before the shock. Moreover, the data show a negative correlation between shock intensity and post-shock household income. Taken together, the results suggest that it is not winter conditions, per se, to which all children are exposed, which drive the results. Actually, it appears that weather shocks affected children mainly through losses in household assets and income. What can UNICEF do to protect children from extreme weather shocks? The fact that children were not shielded from the negative consequences of the 2009/10 winter disaster shows that the country did not experience sufficient learning from previous weather shocks. Because extreme weather is likely to strike again in Mongolia and elsewhere, it is essential to apply policies which protect vulnerable children in case of future shocks. More research is needed to better understand the long-term effects of weather events and the mechanisms behind them. However, the existing evidence already indicates a range of complementary policies that can mitigate the impact of weather shocks on children. As UNICEF previously advocated, such policies include post-disaster relief, such as the provision of nutritional supplements to infants or pregnant mothers or the delivery of fodder to protect weakened animals. The research presented here indeed finds a positive correlation between the amount of food and fodder aid distributed after the shock and children's health outcomes in a given district. Preventive interventions are equally, if not more important, than post-shock support. In the context of health protection, these may include monitoring the health of pregnant mothers and infants - even in non-disaster years - especially in remote rural areas and in poorer households. Moreover, weather insurance can be effective in protecting household income and, in turn, children's health and education. Increasing the diversification of household economic activity can also improve household resilience in the face of weather extremes. As a form of income support, cash transfers also have great potential as a mitigation policy in the context of natural disasters. Finally, improving the dissemination of information on extreme weather events, for instance through early warning systems, may also prevent the negative consequences of extreme weather on children. Valeria Groppo is Social and Economic Policy Consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti. Thanks to Michelle Mills for her comments. The research presented in this blog was conducted within the project "Economics of Climate Change: Coping with Shocks in Mongolia". The project was carried out by a team of researchers at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin), in cooperation with the Mongolian National Statistical Office (NSO). Funding for the project was provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website.
Can researchers and journalists find a common language?
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Can researchers and journalists find a common language?

Main stream media outlets are facing threats from all sides. Often criticised as sensationalist, news media preoccupation with scandal, corruption and violence is increasingly being called into question. The latest challenge - fake news - has led many to question the reliability of the entire news media profession. Developing deeper relations between the news media and the research community in today's political and social climate takes on added urgency. Can better cooperation between researchers and journalists provide a lifeline?The journalism and research communities have long had an uneasy relationship. The former is criticised for exaggerating research findings based on a small amount of data while important science and research developments fall far from view. Media houses argue that research findings lack news value and are not packaged correctly. Academics charge that journalists  are only interested in shiny bright objects.It begs the question: Where and how does quality social science research on children fit in today's competitive  and chaotic news landscape? Or viewed from the other end of the spectrum: What is news media's role in promoting quality research? Packaging important yet highly contextual, often incremental advances in knowledge for the world's media powerhouses is no easy task, especially in the current media landscape, where facts and alternative facts are seemingly put forward on an equal footing.Traditionally, journalism is concerned with the reporting of new or fresh information on matters of public interest, relayed accurately, speedily and impartially. However, the news industry requires editors to switch from one story to the next at a rapid pace, depending on the issues of the day. In the scientific community, the most 'newsworthy' events arise after  research findings are repeatedly validated  through independent replication. Well-crafted social science research does, however, make the headlines. UNICEF's most recent Innocenti  Report Card, published in 2016, shone a bright light on inequality among the most disadvantaged children in high-income countries. Report Card made international headlines, but did that result only  because of the sensation created by  UNICEF turning its gaze  toward children in the wealthiest countries?Another important piece of research on children didn't fare so well.These findings could potentially help educators in many countries understand that far from helping students, beatings actually retard student achievement.In 2015 UNICEF Innocenti in collaboration with Oxford's  Young Lives  longitudinal study published a research discussion paper on the effect of  corporal punishment on children's educational progress. Up to 12,000 children were profiled in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Viet Nam for the study, marking a significant piece of research.Between 50-90 per cent of children, depending on the country, had witnessed corporal punishment being carried out in schools. Most importantly, students who were physically punished by teachers at age eight showed decreased achievement  in studies at age 12, compared with students who were not beaten. This is important evidence of how beatings by teachers undermine long-term learning.New research is providing solid evidence that corporal punishment in school undermines children's progress in school. How can journalists turn this data into impact?These findings could potentially help educators in many countries understand that far from helping students, beatings actually retard student achievement. With corporal punishment in school still legal in 76 countries, and often widely practiced where it is outlawed, had these findings become global headlines, they could have sparked important changes in the way millions of school children are maltreated around the world.Developing deeper relations between media and research is crucial to ensuring research uptake. Quality research can enrich the news agenda considerably and contribute to the global discourse around children's rights on a wide scale. The power of the media rests in its ability to reach the eyes and ears of policy makers and development actors instantaneously.One way to start building better communication between journalists and researchers is to look for shared values. Journalists are experts at taking complex matters and breaking them down into bite-sized, easy to digest packages. Innately curious, they share many similar characteristics with researchers. Both are trained to base their reporting on multiple reliable sources and both professions take great pleasure in bringing facts to light.Trust and respect are two essential principles if we are to build better relations. There are excellent media professionals and organisations who have a sound grasp on data, science and research and who care deeply about the rights of children . Research and journalism are two complimentary spheres of  endeavour both aiming to increase  knowledge and define truth. We need to create many more in-depth opportunities for these spheres to align.Here are two lists of tips: one for researchers who want to communicate their findings in the news media and another for journalists who aspire to develop better reporting based on evidence and research.For researchers:Become familiar with the  day-to-day challenges  and pressures of news reporting in today's world.Become active on social media. This is where the media community gathers and provides a direct line of communication with them.Start blogging  to widen your circles and instantly connect with important streams of discourse anywhere in the world.Be a thoughtful consumer of news and blogs and identify/follow those who understand data and science.Practice translating your research into common language and  craft a short pitch, if possible including the scale of potential impact on populations.Explain how your research relates to the prominent issues of the day and present your findings concisely. Practice breaking the research down into a few key sentences.Reach out to specific journalists by name, not to media organisations, preferably by phone or direct message or social media messaging.  Have your pitch ready to go.Seek to build long term relations with the media based on trust and respect.Research findings may not have the same news value as other stories and they are not to be treated as breaking news stories. Take your time in identifying which media outlets are best suited for the research and how you will structure your pitch.For journalists:Treat any outreach from the research world as a potentially high value news source. Bona fide social scientists are uncovering evidence to reveal something previously unknown or poorly understood.Researchers are often deeply absorbed in their data and not always adept at making it understood to everyone. Spend a bit more time than usual and work with them to understand their pitch.Understand the difference between single journal articles and  systematic reviews  of evidence, especially those using  meta-analysis  of research literature.Look for research that employs  randomized control trials, a robust method of defining impact.Before deciding that a particular research story has limited news value make sure you understand its place among a body of evidence.A single research study rarely proves causation: ("Coffee causes cancer!") Learn how and when to apply the terms: "associated," "correlated" and "caused" in reporting.Where necessary explain that findings are preliminary, need validation/replication or add weight to a developing body of evidence. Rayyan Sabet Parry is a digital media consultant with UNICEF Innocenti. He has worked as a journalist with AP, The Independent, BBC, AFP and The Times of London. Follow him on Twitter here.    Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website.
From a human face to human emotion: valuing feelings in development
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From a human face to human emotion: valuing feelings in development

Thirty years ago UNICEF  reminded the world that development had a human face.  Making up for the "lost decade" of the Eighties did not have to be funded through macroeconomic management, debt service or growth recovery alone. How relevant that reminder continues to be today. Back in the 1990s, optimism soared on the capacity of interpersonal trust and participation in social networks - social capital - to explain development. Social capital has been used ever since to explain child anthropometrical development, household expenditures, farming practices, migration, academic performance, democracy, economic growth, and even military desertion during the US Civil War. And even those who hew to the belief that criminal offences occur only when monetized benefits exceed expected costs - to be adjusted by impunity rates - take exception to crimes of passion, completely unexplained by rational motives. Embracing the idea that human beings cannot be understood solely as homo economicus has now inspired a whole new field: behavioural economics, where psychology and economics intersect.Embracing the idea that human beings cannot be understood solely as homo economicus has now inspired a whole new field: behavioural economics, where psychology and economics intersect. At one time individuals were subjected to laboratory experiments to reveal factors driving voting preferences: interpersonal trust, envy, cooperation, and obedience to authority. Best known is the Milgram experiment in the early 1960s where individuals were willing to unduly inflict pain on innocent victims simply because a perceived authority ordered them to do so. Outside the lab, behavioural insights have been translated into real-life developmental policy design: for example, "nudging" has become a new popular strategy to get people to do the "right" thing and an alternative to the more mainstream but controversial conditionality. Printing tax bills on pink paper typically used for debt collection in Singapore led to an improvement in the payment rate of between 3 to 5 percentage points. In Kenya, stickers in the notoriously dangerous matatu minibuses inviting users to complain about bad drivers helped reduce the number of traffic accidents by an estimated 140 accidents per year. Explaining development through the lens of emotion The much-publicized inclusion of happiness in national accounting in Bhutan perhaps clouds the more relevant contribution that subjective well-being has to offer development. Take the case of subjective life satisfaction and the Arab Spring. One could not possibly explain the Arab Spring based on objective developmental indicators. Tunisia, where the revolution exploded before it sprawled across the region, had years of growth at respectable rates; reduced its monetary poverty sizeably; and even modestly reduced consumption inequality. Here is the catch. As economic growth took place, expectations of improved quality of life grew as well. In time, feelings of frustration replaced those expectations and were then fuelled by growing awareness of pervasive corruption, nepotism, social immobility and lack of economic opportunities for youth. This is a common story in the Middle East and North Africa region. A recent analysis shows that the gap between perceived and actual prosperity distribution has widened. And, in Egypt, while before the revolution, the poor used to believe their lives were better than indicated by objective measures, after the upheaval they believed themselves worse off than they objectively were. http://www.worldbank.org/pspIn a sense, the Arab Spring is a story of withered aspirations rather than lack of "objective" development. In fact, aspirations showcase the increasing importance of emotion in the inter-generational transmission of opportunities, a.k.a poverty. Psychologists refer to "socio-emotional capital" or "psychological capital" as a key driver for later-life outcomes and opportunities. Take the case of empowerment among adolescents. Socio-emotional capital determines, for instance, self-belief about one's ability to accomplish tasks and cope with challenges, as well as attitudes with respect to one's future. These emotions help explain adolescents' education and labour market aspirations which, in turn, have a bearing on future education and labour market outcomes. They also affect other aspects of adolescents' lives, from prevailing attitudes on gender roles to early marriage and fertility decisions. Similarly, a study in India found that parents' aspirations for their children - their level of education, likelihood of graduating from high school, potential for getting a job, appropriateness of early marriage - affected their decisions to invest in their children's human capital. Children's emotions and social benefits One could expand the list of emotional drivers of development. Let's focus attention on children and sports for development. The argument being that sports constitute a compelling alternative to violence among youth at risk, as well as instilling the values of team work, discipline, respect and inclusion. Unsurprisingly, many of UNICEF's most successful Goodwill Ambassadors are celebrity sportswomen and men. Less well understood - and perhaps even more beneficial than sports - are social development programmes through music and arts. A paradigmatic case is the child and youth orchestra in Venezuela, El Sistema, which aspires to benefit 500,000 children a year from low socioeconomic backgrounds. A rigorous assessment of El Sistema expansion plans estimated a benefit to cost ratio of 1.68, mostly coming from social benefits in the form of reduced school dropout and community victimization rates among beneficiaries. Who said 'soft' development? Ironically, our emotions are the main hindrance for developing a comprehensive emotional lens for development. Many still think emotional development is 'soft' development. But the evidence that supports the few examples used above comes from rigorous evaluations and carefully designed household surveys. A young violinist from the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela which is supported by the 'El Sistema' approach to musical education performs at the 'Celebration of Leadership' concert at the United Nations.   ©UNICEF/UNI37128/BronsteinCollecting emotion-related data is typically a heavier task than data on consumption, incomes or wealth. Emotions are not directly observed. Asking individuals directly about their aspirations may be subject to serious errors in measurement, coming from, among others, the unwillingness of individuals to report private knowledge. A consensus definition on the measurement of emotion is still a work in progress. Indices used so far remain diverse, and essentially a factor of the personal choice of the researcher. But regardless of those choices, high quality emotion-related data requires an impressive display of precision. A study of aspirations of children in Ethiopia conducted painstakingly detailed analyses of usability, reliability and validity of the survey instrument before it would scale up into a reasonably sized household survey.[i] So where is all this heading to? First, the belief that rational behaviour should dominate development analysis and policy design has been largely contested. And quite compellingly so. Second, emotions play a substantive role in development, especially among children, adolescents and youth. This is not, however, a horse race to determine whether emotions or rationality are more important to explain development. It is a question of how they complement each other to make policies more effective. Third, emotions are not just the soft side of development, they are simply part of development. Four, in terms of quality data collection, they remain as much, if not more, of a challenge, than collecting standard indicators of well-being. Besides, how emotions affect individual decisions that bear consequences on their human capital, labour, saving, fertility or criminal behaviour need to be further understood. But, by all means, this is not a flavour of the month among policymakers and donors or a short-lived fashion among academics eager to publish on trending topics. Certainly, at UNICEF Innocenti we take emotional development seriously and join those already working on these issues. Researchers at UNICEF work on multiple aspects of adolescent well-being including, for example, the measurement of their life satisfaction or estimating the effects that cash transfers have on mental health and aspirations. By engaging in this work we hope to expand the toolkit of good policies that development practitioners can use to design effective policies for children, adolescents and youth. Without a doubt, much more remains to be done and we certainly call for more work in this area. Because - as it was the case thirty years ago -we need to remind ourselves that development also has many human faces. Jose Cuesta took up his position as Chief of Social and Economic Policy at the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti in October. He holds a PhD in Economics from Oxford University and most recently worked at the World Bank where he co-directed the Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016 flagship report series. Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website.   [i] Those three properties of the survey refer to the willingness of individuals to answer proposed questions; responses are consistent to repeated application of the questionnaire; and answers measure only aspirations and no other emotion.
Food for thought on measuring child food insecurity
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Food for thought on measuring child food insecurity

Food is a basic necessity of life. You probably know the grim statistics: one in four children are stunted, approximately half of all deaths among children under 5 are attributable to malnutrition, and in the developing world alone,  66 million children of primary school age go to school hungry. These numbers are alarming and unacceptably high. And yet, they may actually underestimate the true extent of food insecurity. Food insecurity goes beyond the problem of not having enough food to eat.Food insecurity goes beyond the problem of not having enough food to eat. It includes aspects of food quality, psychological factors such as worry about food sourcing, and nutritional and non-nutritional consequences of inadequate access to food. Ironically, without data on how many children are food insecure, or where they live, we hope to achieve SDG 2.1, which calls for an  end to hunger by 2030. Measuring child food insecurity is tricky. Evidence on standard anthropometric indicators such as stunting or wasting (measured in z-scores, or, standard deviation units from the mean) are typically relied upon by programme managers and policy-makers. Understanding the extent of child food insecurity requires additional sources of data on household food practices. However, it turns out that parents and child caregivers can be unreliable sources of information, often underestimating children's food insecurity or failing to recognize how children respond and react to food insecurity. Children, on the other hand, are well aware of food insecurity in terms of decreased quality and quantity of food. They also experience shame and stigma associated with being food insecure. They recognize parental hardships, such as stress about food, and actively look for methods to alleviate it. Most importantly, children recognize how important food is for well-being, and grasp the complex social, economic and political factors surrounding it. Bahatu Abrahamani feeds her child Memunatu, 2, some Plumpy Nut therapeutic food supplement in the village of Moglaa, Ghana.Although it is not feasible to ask very young children about their experiences of food insecurity, some research has explored self-reports of food insecurity among older children, or even investigated food consumption to understand age and gender dynamics around food. At the recent Seventh International Conference on Agricultural Statistics held at FAO in October 2016, among the research presented were analyses that explored child and adolescent food insecurity. The UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti presented preliminary research using Gallup World Poll data, which measures food insecurity as part of the Voices of the Hungry project. The analysis uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale to develop proxy measures for global child food insecurity, and suggests that although the prevalence of food insecurity among households with children under 15 is the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the burden lies in South Asia. Also presented at the conference was evidence from the Young Lives study in India, which showed significant differences in intra-household food allocation by gender during mid-adolescence. The longitudinal study showed a pro-boy gap at age 15 in the number of food groups consumed, and that boys ate more nutritious foods than girls. Previous research in Ethiopia found that adolescent girls were more likely to report being food insecure than adolescent boys. Although all these studies add to a growing evidence base on how children experience food insecurity, the Ethiopia study is the only one to ask adolescent self-reports, thus highlighting the need for more research in this area. Ongoing studies in the US and Venezuela have begun to unpack this complex topic; however, we have a long way to go to capture children's experiences directly. Some food for thought on child food insecurity How do children across the world perceive and respond to food insecurity? What are the causes and consequences of child food insecurity across different contexts? Do children within the same household face different food security risks? How do these risks differ across contexts, particularly where households are prone to adverse shocks, such as conflict and fragility? It is important to keep in mind that access to food alone does not address the burden of food insecurity, for both adults and children. Food insecurity is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon that can only be addressed with a multi-sectoral approach. Understanding how children experience food insecurity, how many children are food insecure, and why, can help better inform programs and policy, and will bring us closer to a world with zero hunger. Audrey Pereira is a Social and Economic Policy Consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti. Follow her on Twitter @audsnends7. Thanks to Amber Peterman and Michelle Mills for their contribution. Explore the  UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue  for new publications. Follow UNICEF  Innocenti on Twitter  and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF  Innocenti website. Link to  the full program for the Seventh International Conference on Agricultural Statistics.
Bringing data on violence out of the shadows in Peru: a 25 year journey
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Bringing data on violence out of the shadows in Peru: a 25 year journey

In 1990, during my first visit to Lima, Peru, the streets were crammed with vendors, pedestrians, vehicles of every description and young men holding calculators. Alberto Fujimori, a college professor, had just been elected president, and was busy enacting wide-ranging neo-liberal reforms, called Fujishock. Overnight, the price of many essentials tripled-and the dollar exchange rate fluctuated every 15 minutes. I nervously exchanged cash with the calculator men from the back seat of a dilapidated taxi. It was an unsettling time in Peru. My efforts to travel to the countryside as an intellectually curious anthropologist to learn about Peru's social movements, were met with dire warnings about the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. Sparking one of the most violent insurgencies in the Western hemisphere in the late 20th century, kidnappings, torture, bombings and attacks on civilians defined the tactics of these rebels. Although feared by many, Sendero Luminoso were also surprisingly popular among the masses, mobilizing the Andean peasants with promises of a Utopian society through violent destruction of all institutions. My introduction to Peru was steeped in economic and political crises. Nearly 25 years later, I returned to Lima as a UNICEF researcher, from the Office of Research - Innocenti, still applying the curiosity of an anthropologist, but now on an official UN mission to understand the drivers of violence affecting children. The UNICEF Lima office is nestled in the shady streets of Miraflores, one of the most affluent districts of what is now a vibrant Peruvian economy. After the necessary protocol visits-we were whisked away to the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. On the way, my colleagues mentioned a nationally representative pilot survey on violence against children that had been completed the previous year. They asked me to keep mum about the survey because it was a source of national shame. As the research lead on the Multi Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children, I chose Peru as one of our research sites because too often countries situated in the Latin America and the Caribbean region-mostly middle income now-are left out of debates about development and violence. Yet in Peru, as with many of its neighbors, booming economic growth has also brought gross inequities that hurt children the most. UNICEF Innocenti has released a set of four new working papers nbsp;called "Understanding Children's Experiences of Violence" in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Viet Nam.Rates of violence are high all over the Americas. In Latin America over 25,000 children were victims of homicide in 2012 alone. Thousands and thousands of others are victims of interpersonal violence-of an emotional, physical and/or sexual nature. This is the main topic of UNICEF Innocenti's work with Peru. I learned from my colleagues that many of Peru's school teachers, who are my age now, had been victims of Sendero Luminoso. Many had surely survived kidnapping, torture or rape. Trauma unhealed, they are among the adults who commit untold violence against children in Peruvian schools. The data made that visible: among those interviewed for the survey, 81.3 % of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years had experienced psychological or physical violence at least once. Learning has become a hazard in Peru. In Huamango, Ayacucho, Peru, 16 year-old Solange Felix Andres Flores attends a youth group where violence in school and at home are hot topics of discussion.I have been working with the UNICEF Peru Office on the Multi Country Study for two years now. We quickly built rapport with the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, and before long, they asked us to help them analyze the survey data that was once forbidden, moving it out of hiding. We trained Government Statistics Office staff and marveled as the Peruvians invented new theory. Our worked sparked crucial dialogue about financial resources-and the Ministry of Women, traditionally cash-strapped, began consultation with the Ministry of Finance resulting in the first ever collaborative study between these sectors. In the process, we never once told the Peruvian Government they had a violence problem-instead, they discovered it on their own terms so that they could be in charge. We held the view that if Peruvian leaders owned this challenge then they would more quickly generate the best solutions. And that is what they have done. The Ministry soon launched a country report-detailing the state of violence affecting children backed by 15 years of national research. They launched it strategically, following 2016 Presidential elections so that the mandate of violence prevention would have traction when the new Minister was named. The once closeted data on violence has now been posted on the Ministry's website and a national plan to focus efforts on preventing violent discipline in schools and households has been launched. The Government of Peru is about to produce a Burden of Violence study to gather more evidence on how investment in prevention makes sense for every sector-even in a relatively wealthy middle income country. The Ministry of Women has budgeted for additional applied violence prevention research, including investigation of the social norms that can determine why some children are at risk of violence while others are not. When I went to Peru twenty-five years ago I was determined to empower people from the ground up-learning about their struggles and envisioning social change. I never imagined one day I'd return with a large UN organization, working for social change in a very different way, helping use national data to put children's rights at the top of Peru's agenda. Mary Catherine Maternowska is a Senior Research and Evaluation Specialist with the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti. She is the lead researcher on the Multi Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children. Explore the nbsp;UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue nbsp;for new publications. Follow UNICEF nbsp;Innocenti on Twitter nbsp;and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF nbsp;Innocenti website.
UNICEF/Ivan Grifi
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Making research count: Lessons on turning evidence into action from the Transfer Project

In international development, research is never purely an academic exercise. Its purpose, ultimately, is to provide knowledge that can be used to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable populations. Yet, despite increased focus on understanding the influence that research has on development policy and practice, methodology for measurement is still in its infancy.The process of evaluating research impact is challenging. True attribution is rarely possible and even assumptions around contribution need to be scrutinized to avoid bias and enhanced perceptions of influence. Some of the methods used for assessing research impact - for example, bibliometrics or "most significant change" - have been around for some time, while new innovations continue to emerge, including Research Contribution Framework, SenseMaker ®, AltMetrics and Social Network Analysis.Applying a case study approach, UNICEF, FAO and partners recently published From Evidence to Action: The Story of Social Cash Transfers and Impact Evaluations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book focuses on 8 evaluations of government-run social protection programs in African countries, conducted under the Transfer Project (Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The special focus of the edition is on how evidence from evaluations were used to catalyze policy and programme change in the social protection arena. Co-authored by researchers, policymakers (including government officials), donors and implementers, each country chapter offers an honest and convincing account of how changed happened.While recognizing variation across countries, the book concludes that 10 years of evidence from the Transfer Project (Chapter 2) contributed to :Building the overall credibility of an emerging social protection sector;Strengthening the case for social protection as an investment tool, and addressing public perceptions and misconceptions;Supporting learning around program design and implementation to inform program improvements; andShaping policy discussions and informing regional social protection agendas.For those of you who have less time to dig into the 350 page volume, here are six key lessons from the editors.Lesson 1: Make sure evaluations are linked to national policy priorities: One of the simplest ways we can ensure results are relevant for policy is to evaluate 'real' programs, which are of interest to stakeholders. In the Transfer Project, this was accomplished by focusing on government-led programming which had gained enough momentum to be squarely on the political agenda. Further, evaluations were commissioned at key moments, when research findings could feed into policy decisions regarding the design, expansion and funding of programs. Because government stakeholders were involved from the outset, key questions of national interest could be included in the evaluation, avoiding the pitfall of answering questions solely driven by academic novelty. Beneficiaries of a Cash Transfer scheme, to which UNICEF is offering technical support, pose for photgraphs at their homes in Bagamoya, Tanzania.Lesson 2: Stronger relationships lead to improved policy linkages: Research teams including both national and international professionals, with quantitative and qualitative expertise, able to interact with and respond to diverse sets of stakeholders, increased national ownership and involvement in the research process. Ultimately this led to trust in, and credibility of, the research teams as well as the evaluation results. Consequentially, when adverse or unexpected findings were uncovered, they were more likely to be accepted, critically discussed, and acted upon, rather than "swept under the rug." For example, in Ghana when irregular payments led to decreased program effectiveness (Chapter 7), or in Zimbabwe when lack of harmonization across targeted transfers led to decreased benefits for households (Chapter 10)-there was commitment to find solutions, instead of finger pointing.Lesson 3: Diversify research products over the evaluation timeline: A common critique of impact evaluations is that once results are delivered-it is too late to make 'course corrections' or inform program scale-up due to the lengthy time between evaluation and publication of results. This was addressed by conducting targeting and baseline analyses, rapid assessments, qualitative work, simulation of local economy impacts, and other products to inform decisions in a timely manner. These analyses complemented the end-of-program impact results to feed into quick 'policy wins' and program change along the evaluation timeline. In Kenya, targeting analysis led to a revision of the targeting formula, better accounting for regional and livelihood differences (Chapter 6) and rapid assessments in Lesotho led to responsive adjustment from a flat transfer to one that varied by household size (Chapter 11). Each country has numerous examples.Lesson 4: Don't overlook the importance of packaging evidence: Another important component of translating evidence into policy change is the framing and presentation of actionable messages through diverse media platforms at key policy junctures. Use of easily accessible products to a non-research audience, such as policy briefs, oral presentations, fact sheets, and advocacy videos (among others) improves links to diverse stakeholders. For example, the Government of Ghana released a series of branded policy briefs utilizing evaluation evidence, which were heavily used in national and regional fora (Chapter 7). Crafting messages to mitigate myths and perceptions which were not backed by evidence also contributed to creating an enabling policy environment. Messaging helped position transfers as investments that create economic multiplier effects as opposed to costs that promote dependency.   Lesson 5: Create regional learning communities: Although evaluations were nationally focused, the combination of evaluations undertaken by the consortium of actors under the Transfer Project contributed to a regional learning culture with its own formal and informal information exchange mechanisms. Annual Transfer Project workshops assisted with cross-country learning and awareness raising among non-evaluation country stakeholders in the region and beyond. Combining evaluation findings from countries at different stages of evaluation and program maturity, to examine both commonalities and divergences, led to a rich regional learning agenda and facilitated an enabling policy environment around social protection.Lesson 6: Build local capacity: Many evaluations work with national research firms and institutes, and build local capacity by training local enumerators or publishing with local academics. The Transfer Project takes this a step further by establishing ongoing research partnerships (e.g. with the African Economic Research Consortium), conducing evaluation training for networks of Ph.D. students, and running a fellowship program, which encourages promising early career African researchers to collaborate with Transfer Project researchers on joint publications, among other activities. Building capacity is not only good practice, but also contributes greatly to ownership and lasting influence of findings at a national level.The authors and editors of From Evidence to Action acknowledge that many decisions come down to politics, or are taken based on influences which are outside the control of research or stakeholder teams. In these instances, and in cases where research findings point out implementation or other challenges, the book still offers important learning that we can glean for future programming (Chapter 14).UNICEF and others who conduct research in international development should strive to use the evidence in a meaningful way. The challenges associated with this outlook are numerous, and include developing and refining sound methods for assessing research impact, as well as using the acquired lessons to maximize the influence of research in the future. Congratulations to the Transfer Project book team, and for raising the bar on research uptake for meaningful change in the lives of poor and vulnerable children and households around the globe!Amber Peterman is a social policy specialist and Nikola Balvin is a knowledge management specialist at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti The Transfer Project book "From Evidence to Action" was published by Oxford University Press and edited by Benjamin Davis (FAO), Sudhanshu Handa (UNC, former UNICEF Innocenti), Nicola Hypher (Save the Children UK), Natalia Winder Rossi (FAO), Paul Winters (IFAD) and Jennifer Yablonski (UNICEF), and includes contributions from over 80 authors. For more information on regional book launches and to download the book for free, see the Transfer Project webpage.Explore the UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue for recent publications from the Transfer Project. Follow UNICEF Innocenti on Twitter and sign up for e-newsletters on any page of the UNICEF Innocenti website.
Brazilian youth in Taiobeiras municipality
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Evidence based policy making on child internet use in Latin America

For most of us, going online has become a daily habit. For younger people, the Internet is not a new habit: it is simply part of the natural environment. In spite of this, children's online lives have seldom been systematically studied. In a scenario where societies are faced with the challenge of regulating internet access; where media spend billions to develop attractive content for girls and boys; where schools aim to promote digital competencies and safe use of digital media, producing reliable data on patterns of Internet use by children, as well as opportunities and risks young people encounter online, is essential to foster effective evidence-based policymaking. Since 2014, Latin American researchers - from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Equator and Uruguay - have worked within a network to both discuss methodological approaches and support the production of indicators and quantitative and qualitative studies about children online in countries from the region. In addition to maintaining active participation in various academic fora, several countries are part of the Global Kids Online network, an initiative launched by the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the EU Kids Online network. Brazil The Kids Online survey, conducted annually since 2012 by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), was created to address the lack of reliable and methodologically sound data on the topic in the country. Cetic.br fosters dialogue among stakeholders when policy developments are being discussed, including the role of governments, international organizations and industry - such as in promoting and protecting rights for children online. In Brazil, both the local government - through the Ministry of Justice - and international organizations, such as UNICEF, have relied on data from the Kids Online survey for developing and discussing public policies aimed at children. Throughout its editions, the Brazilian Kids Online survey has pointed to the existence of a significant portion of children who do not use the Internet. Findings have shown that about eight out of ten children aged 9 to 17 - about 23 million - are considered Internet users in Brazil, whereas 6.3 million children are still unconnected, of whom 3.6 million have never accessed the Internet. Thus, in countries such as Brazil, it continues to be critical to investigate the profile of nonusers, or those who have not overcome initial barriers to digital inclusion. And it often requires considerable effort to promote equal online opportunities. And among those who are connected, results have shown the persistence of regional and socioeconomic inequalities that restrict opportunities for children. Although Internet use through mobile technology has become increasingly frequent among Brazilian children across all socioeconomic levels, a significant portion face restrictions on use. More than half of connected children from low-income families rely exclusively on mobile phones to go online, while 12 per cent of children from high-income families are limited to mobile access. Argentina The Kids Online survey was coordinated by UNICEF and included both quantitative and qualitative data collection. The survey was administered to 1,106 adolescents aged 13-18, using a representative sample at the national and regional levels. Young people in Argentina using a computer The qualitative research included 12 focus groups with 60 adolescents aged 13-18, and 32 parents with children in the same age range. Additionally, UNICEF organized dialogues with government, academia and private sector representatives, with the participation of UNICEF Innocenti, to deepen the understanding of the results. Argentina Kids Online is already helping to inform policies on digital citizenship and literacy. For example, it has been presented to the Committee that is currently writing Argentina's "Convergent Communications Law," which will amend existing legislation in relation to telecommunications, cable television and audio-visual services in general To support Argentina Kids Online, UNICEF also launched #FamiliasConectadas, a series of seven videos in which well-known actors and actresses reflect on how they talk about using social media and the internet with their own children. This was an additional angle to disseminate the report, reaching a different audience. Chile A first version of the Kids Online survey is being conducted by researchers from three universities: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Chile. The questionnaire was adapted from the Kids Online survey applied in Brazil and included all core questions from the Global Kids Online study. The survey was applied to a probabilistic sample of 1,000 children and teenagers from ages 9 to 17 and one parent or caretaker, in the fifteen regions of the country. The main dimensions included were access, opportunities, risks, mediation, harm and digital skills. The project has been supported and funded by the Ministry of Education and UNESCO. The fieldwork will end by November 2016 and the main results will be released in April 2017 in an international conference in Santiago. After the general results, special reports and papers will be published considering specific topics and comparative analysis with Brazil Global Kids Online and future versions of EU Kids Online. Among the organizations that provide institutional support for the research projects described are the EU Kids Online network, UNICEF, UNESCO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The network proposes to adapt the theoretical and methodological framework of the EU Kids Online network to the Latin American context and to promote sharing of experiences among researchers, also fostering international data comparability. Global Kids Online is an international research project that aims to generate and sustain a rigorous cross-national evidence base around children's use of the internet by creating a global network of researchers and experts.  The project offers a global research toolkit that enables academics, governments, civil society and other actors to carry out reliable and standardised national research with children and their parents on the opportunities, risks and protective factors of children's internet use.
The internet of opportunities: what children say
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The internet of opportunities: what children say

"We grew up with the internet. I mean, the internet has always been here with us. The grown-ups are like 'Wow the internet appeared', while it is perfectly normal for us." -Boy, 15 years old, SerbiaWhen our research teams in Argentina, the Philippines, Montenegro, Serbia and South Africa, who are part of the new Global Kids Online initiative, set out to interview children about their use of the internet we expected to find wide spread use of the digital technologies for entertainment and communication. And indeed, it was hardly a surprise that a majority of children in our research countries visit social networking sites at least every week for communication and interaction with peers.In fact, qualitative and quantitative research in Argentina found that social networking sites are the primary means of communication, socialization and expression of adolescents today, and we might expect this to be the case for children in many parts of the world.The Internet is fun, children say. In South Africa, 96 per cent of child participants reported that they sometimes or always had fun when they went online.A student uses a mobile phone in a classroom at Oswaldo Lucas Mendes Public High School in Taiobeiras municipality in the Southeastern state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.But learning can also be fun, they say; in Montenegro children told us that learning online was much easier and more fun than learning from standard textbooks:"This is a smartphone time, and I am sure that no one would give advantage to book over the phone." -Girl, 14 years old, Montenegro.This sentiment seems to be shared by children on the other side of the ocean; in Argentina almost 80 per cent of teens said they use the internet to do homework or access educational content on a wide range of topics (maths, history, music, dance, cooking, etc.):"I wanted to learn to play the guitar and went online." said one boy, 15 years old. "I flunked math, so I watched a couple of vids where they explained what I had to study", said another. In addition, many use the internet to post images, videos or music online, and close to 40 per cent of children in Argentina published things on a website or wrote a blog in the last month.It is clear that access to and use of the internet can have beneficial if not transformative potential for children. As Frank La Rue, former UN special rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, stated in his address to the UN General Assembly in 2014, the internet not only enhances opportunities for communication and freedom of expression, but it can also serve as a tool to help children claim their other rights, including their right to education, freedom of expression, association and full participation in social, cultural and political life, and should therefore be recognized as an indispensable tool for children.While the discourse around children's rights in the digital age often centers on risks, which we acknowledge do exist and can potentially cause serious harm, children themselves seem to be more interested in the opportunities digital technologies bring.Another key opportunity that emerged in our work with children was the opportunity for participation online. Participation is one of the underlying principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, allowing children's voices to be heard in matters that affect them.It can provide opportunities for civic engagement and self-expression among those children and adolescents who do not necessarily have a voice in their communities.   It can help transcend barriers linked to gender and ability/disability and can allow children to learn about decisions and choices available to them.Social networking sites can bring a new sense of "community", one that is different from community defined by geography and one that goes beyond participation to also include social support.While talking to children about self-expression, learning and participation we found thatBetween 56-94 per cent of children learned something new online and between 23 and 45 per cent looked for health information onlineBetween a quarter to one third of children reported that they use the internet to talk to people from different backgrounds at least monthly, a helpful way to become more familiar with other countries, cultures and35 to 50 per cent of children went online to read news and this percentage is higher (up to 70 percent) among older childrenFewer children are engaged in civic activities - only about 11 to 17 per cent of children discussed social and political problems on line while 16 to 32 per cent of children looked for information about their neighborhood.Global Kids Online is a new online research partnership which aims to support high quality research on child internet use all over the world.This snapshot shows potential benefits of the internet for many children: that they like to explore and seek information, read news and look for answers to their concerns independently. In a today's world, the internet becomes not only a new "playground" but also a "library" a "public space' and a "community".In light of these advantages, it is important to state that some children are still unable to go online as much as they would like, impeding the realization of their rights. Barriers to access still persist, preventing full participation online. In South Africa we identified that just about half of children were able to access the internet whenever they wanted to most often due to high cost of data (47 per cent), but also because adults did not allow them to go online (32 per cent).This is certainly not due to malicious intent - indeed, most parents we spoke to in South Africa seemed very aware of the many advantages that internet brings - but rather due to the fear that they would be unable to adequately help and support their children online, which might subject them to risks.As a parent in South Africa expressed it during a focus group: "We don't know the internet, we don't know where to press to go in to look while they aren't there. We must also almost know how it works before we can say "how can we help?", because we can't help if we don't know [...]".In order to ensure that children globally can enjoy free (but not necessarily unsupervised) access to the internet, we need a two-pronged approach that focuses not only on informing children about internet use, but equally on informing parents and other stakeholders such as teachers and policy makers.Policies and strategies that promote empowered and safe online experiences should take into account children's agency, including their desire to experiment and sometimes to take risks, and also their desire to be responsible for themselves and their actions.Written by Jasmina Byrne and Daniel Kardefelt-Winther from UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti. Search the UNICEF Innocenti research publication catalogue . Sign up for UNICEF Innocenti email updates on any page here.  Visit Global Kids Online (www.globalkidsonline.net) to join a global research partnership led by UNICEF Innocenti and the London School of Economics and Political  Science to build a robust evidence base for better internet policy worldwide. The GKO website makes high quality, pilot tested research tools freely available.  
A statistician, registers a child at the National Population Commission
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Ethical dilemmas and research management in international development

Recently, I've found myself immersed in a number of intellectually stimulating and ethically challenging discussions on the role of research in international development. Two instances stand out, because they vividly capture some of the dilemmas encountered in ethical research management and evidence-informed decision making. The first took place when I visited Dakar to co-deliver a five day 'Introduction to Research Management and Methods' workshop to UNICEF staff from East and West African country offices. The course provided an overview of UNICEF research policies and procedures, an introduction to research ethics, a refresher on research designs, methods, and basic statistics, and best practices in research communication and uptake. The debates were lively and thought-provoking and participants seemed to head home with a deeper understanding of the complexities associated with commissioning and conducting research for children in international development. As we covered the strengths and shortcomings of different research designs and methods, one participant recounted that during the session, one by one, he's crossed off every item in his list of commonly used research methods. The more he learnt, the more complicated or limited they seemed. And although the comment was made with a smile, it captures how overwhelming - and sometimes even paralyzing - methodological decisions can be for research managers. I wished I never attended your workshop (LOL), now I am aware of the limitations of our usual studies and at the same time sensitized to the importance of it!- Participant in  UNICEF Introduction to Research Management and Methods workshop, Dakar, Senegal.  After Senegal I traveled to London where I chaired a session at the What Works Global Summit. The conference brought together hundreds of researchers, policy makers, practitioners and donors to discuss issues such as which research methods are most suitable under what circumstances. My panel was organized by Jo Puri and Deo-Gracias Houndolo from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). It examined the Minimum Detectable Effect (MDE) - a parameter used in power calculations to determine how big a sample needs to be to detect a meaningful difference between the treatment and control/comparison group, if it indeed exists. One of the tensions around MDE is that it is often decided by researchers with technical expertise, while policy makers and practitioners might feel that their contextual knowledge puts them in a better position to decide what effect an intervention can reasonably be expected to have within a given time frame. UNICEF research management training in Dakar, Senegal.Once again, this discussion was lively and engaging. Some researchers argued that determining MDE should be a consultative process that includes technical experts and decision makers. Others went further to propose that beneficiaries' input on what change would be considered "significant" in their lives also needs to be included. On the one hand, the issue is who should determine what MDE can be reasonably expected from an intervention. On the other, it is about who should indicate if an effect is large enough to be considered significant - i.e. who decides what a minimum change should look like? Other panelists deviated from the technical discussion to a view that evidence can only go so far and in some cases policy makers will make the decisions they want, regardless of the effect size of a carefully evaluated intervention. When discussing the complexities of Type I and Type II error in hypothesis testing and the frequent pressure to find significant effects, a senior government decision maker had a "light-bulb" moment. He reflected on the ethics of making decisions based on evaluations that were conducted in haste. Sometimes the pressure to evaluate means that evaluations take place within short time frames, with restricted budgets and less than optimal sample sizes. They may evaluate a program which has not fully matured, and based on unrealistic assumptions around the MDE, lead to decisions to terminate the programme because of its seemingly modest - or non-significant - effects. In such instances, the decision to proceed with an evaluation may be unethical, because it sets the programme up to be determined a failure, when in fact the fault is in the evaluation approach. In international development, research should never be conducted purely for the sake of research, and like programming, its usability, effectiveness and the validity of its findings need to be critically scrutinized. The research management workshop in Dakar did not cover the ethics around MDE, but I can see the complexity of this issue disheartening my UNICEF colleague even further. The Dakar and London examples highlight how the culture of "evidence-based" policy and programming brings new dilemmas to well-meaning stakeholders who wish to use evidence for positive outcomes, but might be put off by its complexity. There are no easy solutions for how to alleviate these anxieties, but dragging non-experts into complex academic debates around reliability and validity will only alienate them further. Researchers need to become better at translating complex methods and results with user-friendly tools like info-graphics, briefs, videos and data visualization. They should also consult practitioners on the decisions they are best-placed to make, such as the effect that an intervention can reasonably be expected to have after a certain period. The complexity of research methods should not be a reason for a lack of dialogue between researchers and practitioners. Nikola Balvin is a Knowledge Management Specialist at the Office of Research - Innocenti. Prior to that she was a Research Officer on UNICEF's flagship publication 'The State of the World's Children' at the New York headquarters. The Office of Research - Innocenti is UNICEF's dedicated research centre investigating  emerging and current priorities to shape policy and practice for children. Access the UNICEF Innocenti research catalogue at:unicef-irc.org/publications. Follow UNICEF Inocenti on Twitter @UNICEFInnocenti Subscribe to UNICEF Innocenti emails here.   The author wishes to thank Deo-Gracias Houndolo from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation for his comments on an earlier draft of this blog.
Christina John (14 years old)
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Turning cash into goats: the cash transfer effect in Tanzania

I have just returned from rural Tanzania, where I got to see one of the largest social protection programmes in Africa in action. The Productive Social Safety  Net provides three types of support to poor and food insecure households:   conditional cash transfers, 'cash for work' and livelihood enhancement. I traveled to the Mbarali district to observe cash transfer payments in two villages- Mwaluma and Mabadaga. Located near the Zambian border, Mbarali relies largely on logging and agriculture as a source of income. Both villages are receiving the cash transfers but have not yet started receiving the public works or the livelihood enhancement components of the programme. We were able to speak to recipients about the impacts cash transfers were having on their lives. Margeth, 22, with daughter, says she has invested in rice farming as a result of cash transfersThe first recipient we interviewed was a young, vibrant woman named Magreth. The 22-year-old told us how the cash was helping to build a future for her children. As a single mother, she managed to invest in rice farming and eventually purchased a pig. She showed us one of the new piglets and mentioned holding off on any sales until the animals grew in order to fetch a better price at the market. The steady, reliable income from Productive Social Safety Nets allows her to delay immediate sales in order to bargain for a better price later. Despite her old age and disability, Evelina, another recipient of the programme, shared how the cash allowed her to invest in a small business selling prepared food. Despite her lack of mobility, she excitedly told us about being able to eat three meals a day using her cash transfer. She told us that money from the cash transfer gave her independence, and that she finally feels good about herself. The final recipient we interviewed was a father with several girls at home, all attending school. He was proud to show everyone the goats he had amassed in part from the cash he received as a recipient of the support. I have been researching the impacts of cash transfers in Africa since 2010. Prior to that, rigorous evidence and research around cash transfers was largely drawn from Latin American countries.   However, evidence on cash transfers in Africa has been growing and can now be used to inform programming in the continent. Leah Prencipe, of UNICEF Innocenti (left) and Evelina. Evelina says she's able to eat three meals a day as a result of cash transfersThe reason we conduct research is to see if a given programme is working to improve the lives of people, and if not, how it can be improved or replaced. You may be interested in how the programme works to improve multiple outcomes e.g. health, nutrition, agricultural output or maternal health. The big outcome of interest in this field is how to alleviate long term poverty, or even to 'break the inter-generational cycle of poverty', but that is very complex and nuanced. We can answer an easier question: What is the cash being spent on? As a researcher who spends most of her time working with numbers, percentages and p-values, getting out to the field to see people benefiting from a programme is immensely satisfying. I could have told you before this trip that recipients of cash transfers are spending money on goats and other livestock and not alcohol or tobacco, or that more children are typically enrolled in school thanks to the cash being provided to their caregivers. However, we also know that cash transfers are not a "silver bullet" - they cannot solve every problem. Tanzania is at a turning point. The health and social advancements over the last 50 years have increased life expectancy, decreased child mortality and morbidity and resulted in over 80% enrolment in primary school. These triumphs, coupled with an enduringly high fertility rate, have left Tanzania with an exploding population. Cash transfers will not be enough for everyone. Not all recipients are as innovative as young Magreth. Some will need support to help them manage money, to think long term about savings and investing and to help plan a successful business. Furthermore, empowering youth to reach their full productive potential is an essential component of Tanzania harnessing what is known as the "demographic dividend." Despite the obvious successes of the programme, the message was strong: youth need opportunities. They are engaging in risky behaviors due to lack of opportunities, getting married young, having children young. Currently, youth are overlooked in the PSSN, where messaging is focused on nutrition and schooling for young children. The programme is making a bold move by adding the public works and livelihoods enhancement components to their social protection plan. Ensuring these measures adequately involve youth, as well as increasing youth-focused programming on sexual and reproductive health may prevent the next generations from needing similar poverty-alleviation assistance. Leah Prencipe is a Social and Economic Policy Consultant at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti. Follow her on Twitter @leahprencipe. For more information on cash transfers visit here.
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