Conflict depletes all forms of human and social capital, as well as supporting institutions. The scale of the human damage can overwhelm public action, as there are many competing priorities and resources are often insufficient. What then should be the priorities for 'post-conflict' policy?...

I investigate the relationship between children's endowment and parental investment using a rich dataset on a cohort of children from Ethiopia, who were surveyed at ages eight, twelve and fifteen. Children's endowment is measured by scores on tests of cognitive skills/ability. A child's...

This paper, using a new set of social development indices, explores the measurement of social development across Africa, and how this relates to broader development patterns and measurement. Development practitioners worldwide increasingly recognize the importance of informal institutions, such...

Lesotho is a small Southern African country that has introduced two national cash transfer programmes, the Old Age Pension and the Child Grant Programme. Although Lesotho has followed what has been called the 'Southern African model', the introduction of the Old Age Pension was not the result of...

The rights-based approach to development targets progress towards the realization of 30 articles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Progress is frequently measured using the multidimensional poverty index. While elegant and useful, the multidimensional poverty index is in...