"A variety of theories of skill formation suggest that investments in schooling and other dimensions of human capital will have lower returns if children do not have adequate levels of cognitive and social skills at an early age. This paper analyzes the impact of a randomized cash transfer...

"There is considerable evidence that young children in many developing countries suffer from profound deficits in nutrition, health, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development. Early childhood development (ECD) outcomes are important markers of the...

Over the past decade, Turkey has experienced significant socioeconomic progress and demographic changes. The benefit of Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs is maximized when the interventions are targeted to children from disadvantaged families. This report examines the ECE provision in...

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b) expanding access to social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and...

Uzbekistan is a lower middle-income country of 29.5 million people, located in Central Asia, with an economy that has been growing by over 8 percent per annum since the mid-2000s. Given international evidence about the high returns that can be realized from investing in pre-primary education...

This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in the Kyrgyz Republic. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework...

This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in Tajikistan. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework....

Yunnan is a medium-sized and relatively poor Chinese province on the southwestern border of China. In 2012, the Yunnan department of education formally requested Bank support in conducting a review of early childhood education policies and programs in order to gain an in-depth and evidence-based...