Upcoming Publication: Girls Grow: A Vital Force in Rural Economies

An upcoming report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Girls Grow: A Vital Force in Rural Economies will evaluate the role of adolescent girls in the developing world and identify opportunities for national governments and bilateral donors to equip these girls to be agents of economic and social change. This report serves as the next volume of the Girls Count series. Girls Count provides some of the first critical research specifically focused on adolescent girls in the developing world.  It demonstrates how providing support to girls ages 10-18 dramatically improves their lives – and also results in significant benefits for society as a whole.  A launch event for this publication is scheduled for early October in the United Kingdom, read more here.

Event (online): Take part in the Population Reference Bureau’s upcoming Discuss Online “Helping Girls Attain Self-Worth and Self-Sufficiency”

When: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 1–2 p.m. (EDT) (GMT -5)

Who: Wendy Baldwin, Vice President and Director of the Poverty, Gender, and Youth Program, Population Council

Where: Go to http://discuss.prb.org. You may submit questions in advance and during the discussion. A full transcript of the questions and answers will be posted after the discussion.

About: Adolescent girls in developing countries confront many of the same challenges as girls do around the globe. But girls in developing countries are more likely to miss out on schooling, leaving them with limited literacy. As they enter adulthood, most will need to earn money and take responsibility for themselves and their families, but they often lack the appropriate social and health assets. Girls may face social isolation—even those living in dense urban areas—and lack essential social networks. Something as simple as an identification card may elude them, leaving them with no evidence of their legitimate place in society and at risk of not qualifying for programs that could help them. A number of programs for adolescent girls within the Population Council’s Poverty, Gender, and Youth Program have sought to address these challenges. Some aim to help girls in urban slums, others reach into rural areas and communities where girls are at high risk of child marriage. These programs seek to increase girls’ skills and assets, establish their self-worth, and raise their value within their families and communities.

Population Reference Bureau
http://www.prb.org

Event (DC): An International Forum in Support of The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship

The United Nations Development Program & The Academy for Educational Development

“Advancing the Cairo Agenda: Entrepreneurship, Education and Gender Equality in the Muslim World”

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
(to be followed by a reception from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.)

Academy Hall, Academy for Educational Development
1825 Connecticut Avenue NW, 8th Floor

In his landmark “New Beginning” speech in Cairo last June, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would host a Summit on Entrepreneurship “to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.” President Obama, together with the Department of State and the Department of Commerce, will convene the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington on April 26 and 27. Delegates from over 40 countries on five continents will participate.

In this UNDP-AED international forum, we will explore how President Obama’s Cairo priorities of entrepreneurship, education and gender equality intersect. In particular, our panelists will discuss how educational reform in the Muslim world can produce a new generation of women and men committed to business and social entrepreneurship.

Please RSVP by Monday, April 26, to undp.washington@undp.org.

Academic Publications: Mothers’ human capital and the intergenerational transmission of poverty

CPRC working paper on: The impact of mothers’ intellectual human capital and long-run nutritional status on children’s human capital Guatemala

Jere R. Behrman
Alexis Murphy
Agnes Quisumbing
Kathryn Yount

Abstract

Many prior studies find significant cross-sectional positive ordinary least squares (OLS) associations between maternal human capital (usually maternal schooling attainment) and children’s human capital (usually children’s schooling, but in some cases children’s nutritional status). This paper uses rich Guatemalan longitudinal data collected over 35 years to explore several limitations of these ‘standard’ estimates. The preferred estimates developed herein  suggest that: (1) maternal human capital is more important than suggested by the standard estimates; (2) maternal cognitive skills have a greater impact than maternal schooling attainment on children’s biological human capital; and (3) for some important indicators of children’s human capital, maternal biological capital has larger effect sizes than maternal intellectual capital (schooling and cognitive skills). These results imply that breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty, malnutrition and intellectual deprivation through investments in women’s human capital may be more effective than previously suggested, but will require approaches that account for dimensions of women’s human capital beyond just their schooling. Effective interventions to improve women’s biological and intellectual human capital often begin in utero or in early childhood; thus, their realisation will take longer than if more schooling were the only relevant channel.

For the full paper