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Young Lives Newsletter March 2024
Round 7 data collection - nearing completion!
We are delighted that Round 7 fieldwork has gone very well with data collection completed in India and Peru and nearly finished in Ethiopia.
Throughout Young Lives' 20 year study, we have maintained an excellent attrition rate, and have worked very hard to uphold this in Round 7. With the young people in our study now aged 22 (Younger Cohort) and 29 (Older Cohort), a good number have migrated away from their communities, including to search for work, and so our country teams have worked hard to track them to new locations. In Ethiopia, due to on-going instability in two remaining sites, the team will now complete the survey by phone.
The team now begins the meticulous work to clean the data received from the study countries and check its consistency. This is a crucial step to provide high quality and user friendly data for the research community. Research findings, including on young peoples’ education and learning, health, nutrition and well-being, and work, and family lives will be published in early 2025.
New podcast explores skills for young lives
Young Lives has investigated girls' and boys' skills development through childhood, the role poverty, gender and global crises play in shaping their experiences and how policies can support them. Listen to our new three episode podcast to find out more!
Episode 1: Unpacking gender and social and emotional skills in the Global South
Young Lives Director Cath Porter talks to Matthew Jukes, Fellow in International Education at RTI International about how gender differences in social and emotional skills emerge in adolescence
Episode 2: How to keep girls in high school in India
Young Lives Director Cath Porter interviews Country Director Renu Singh about why more girls in India drop out of higher education, despite having similar skills to boys.
Episode 3: Supporting children’s skills development – what works
Sarah Lane Smith, Education Research Adviser, FCDO and YL’s Senior Policy Advisor Kath Ford reflect on policy approaches to support children's early skills development.
Young Lives at UNCSW, New York
Young Lives' Senior Policy Advisor, Kath Ford, and Communications Manager, Julia Tilford, were invited to this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-68) in New York, to launch our new Young Lives Photo Exhibition as part of UNICEF’s flagship Ministerial event, “We Deserve Better: Unlocking the power of social protection for women and girls” hosted jointly with FCDO and Hewlett Foundation.
The event brought together government Ministers, civil society, and international organizations to highlight the importance of social protection to address the challenges women and girls face as they grow up amid poverty, inequality and global crises. Read more - click below.
International Policy Event - Wilton Park
Young Lives' Kath Ford, was invited to present at a high-level international policy event, “Building Women’s Economic Empowerment into Climate Transitions”, at Wilton Park, in support of the UK’s new Global Campaign for Women's Economic Empowerment.
The 3 day event brought together governments, the private sector, academic, civil society, and multilateral institutions to explore the key challenges to building women’s economic empowerment into the green growth agenda and how to overcome them.
It was a fantastic opportunity to share Young Lives’ evidence on the impact of climate shocks on skills development, and the challenges girls and women face to access decent jobs, and to showcase our new Young Lives Photo Exhibition.
Kath Ford with Rt Hon. Justine Greening, former Secretary of State for International Development
Young Lives at CSAE, Oxford
In March our research team had the pleasure of presenting five papers at the Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference (CSAE). The papers, were presented over three days and used Young Lives’ data to investigate various topics, such as the effect of conflict on education and employment outcomes of youth in Ethiopia, and whether human capital influences the gender gap in earnings.
Building Networks of Influence - Ethiopia
Young Lives Ethiopia plays a pivotal role in the Children, Youth and Women Research and Practice Forum (CYW-RPF) forum, formerly the Child Research and Practice Forum, established in 2010 to create a stronger connection between research, policy and programmes related to children and youth in Ethiopia. The CYW-RPF, which now has over 1,400 individuals and institutions signed up, holds monthly seminars, and circulates quarterly newsletters and annual publications to share and discuss evidence-based research. The CYW-RPF is organized by Young Lives Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and UNICEF Ethiopia.
Remembering Gina Crivello
As we approach the second anniversary of our much missed colleague and friend Gina Crivello's passing, colleagues and friends in the academic community continue to remember and dedicate work to her:
- 'Big Qual. A Guide to Breadth - and - Depth Analysis' which includes a case study by Gina
- Book Chapter, ‘Minting worlds Economic minors tracing money in a Global Financial Crisis’
ODID Annual Report
Young Lives is based in Oxford University's Department of International Development (ODID). Dip into ODID's 2023 Annual Report for news and stories about the department's exciting work - including of course some of Young Lives' highlights from the last year!
Young Lives team news
There have been a number of exciting changes to our research team in Oxford. Marta Favara is now Young Lives' Director of Research, and has also recently been appointed as Research Fellow at the Institute of Labour Economics (IZA), and Alan Sanchez has joined us as Senior Research Officer in Oxford, also continuing as the Co-Principal Investigator at Niños del Milenio, Peru. Joining Marta and Alan, we are delighted to welcome four new researchers to the team, Andrea Tartakowsky as a Research Officer and three Research Assistants, Amanda Woodman Deza, Tanima and Juliana Quigua Chinchilla.
If you have any questions or comments about this newsletter please contact Young Lives Communications Manager - julia.tilford@qeh.ox.ac.uk.
