CHIP Report 9: Improving child wellbeing in developing countries. What do we know? What can be done?

From:: Department for International Development
Published: 1 January 2004

Country:: India, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, South Korea, Cuba, Costa Rica, Barbados
Document Type:: Thematic Summary
Theme:: Social Change
Authors:: Mehrotra, S.

Abstract

This paper examines the successes of ten 'high-achievers' - countries with social indicators far higher than might be expected, given their national wealth - pulling together the lessons learned for social policy in the developing world. Some of them have immense populations, others small. Most are market economies, but one is not. Their cultures, languages and histories are varied. They have little in common, except in one crucial respect: they have all managed to exceed the pace and scope of health and education development in the majority of other developing countries. Their children go to school and their child mortality rates have plummeted. The paper shows how, in the space of fifty years, these countries have made advances in health and education.

Citation

Mehrotra, S. (2004) CHIP Report 9: Improving child wellbeing in developing countries. What do we know? What can be done? Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP), London, UK, iii + 50 pp.