Young Lives partners
Ethiopia | India | Peru | Vietnam | United Kingdom | Phase 1/Phase 2 partners (2001-2006)
Ethiopia
Principal Investigator: Tassew Woldehanna, EDRI
Lead Qualitative Researcher: Yisak Tafere
Policy Coordinator: Bekele Tefera, Save the Children-UK
Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)
The Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) is a semi-autonomous, not-for profit think-tank, providing expert analysis and advice on all aspects of short- and long-term policy. EDRI conducts research, convenes seminars, workshops, and conferences to a wide audience (policymakers, private sector, civil society groups and other stakeholders) and disseminates its research output. Currently, its research activities are structured in to three directorates: Macroeconomics and Modeling; Agricultural and Rural Development; and Poverty and Sectoral Development.
Founded in 1999, EDRI is headed by an Executive Director and has an advisory committee with members from government institutions, the private sector, the financial sector and the academia. It is funded through government budget allocation as well as donor support including the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and United Nations Development Programme. EDRI has strong and active links with a number of relevant international research institutions and donors as well as local research institutions including Addis Ababa University, IDRC, IFPRI, University of Gothenburg, University of Oxford, University of Sussex and the World Bank. In addition to its own research programmes, EDRI hosts many international projects including the Environmental Economics Policy Forum for Ethiopia (EEPFE), the Ethiopian Strategy Support Program (ESSP) and Young Lives.
Website: www.edri.org.et
Save the Children-UK, Ethiopia
Save the Children-UK began programme work in Ethiopia before the famine of 1973/74, when relief assistance was delivered to Wollo in the central highlands. In response to the famine, an emergency feeding and sanitation programme was established, which led to Save the Children UK’s important role in relief operations during the famine of 1984/85 and during more localised harvest failures. The Ethiopia country programme addresses the root causes of famine, working with and for some of the world’s poorest children.
In Ethiopia Save the Children-UK has identified three themes that have the greatest impact on the greatest number of children: basic services including health, education, and HIV/AIDS; livelihoods and poverty; and emergency preparedness and response. To address these three areas, Save the Children works closely with the Ethiopian Government and local partners on projects including the following: nutrition surveillance programme; HIV/AIDS support; improving quality of and access to health services; alternative basic education; reproductive health for Somali refugees; household food economy analysis; emergency relief; relief to development; and livelihoods project.
Website: www.savethechildren.net/ethiopia
India (Andhra Pradesh)
Principal Investigator: Professor S.K. Galab
Lead Qualitative Researcher: Professor Uma Vennam, SPMVV
Policy Coordinator: Ajay Sinha, Save the Children-BRB
Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
The Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) is an autonomous research institute in India, engaged in multidisciplinary research and training in the social sciences. The Centre focuses on socio-economic and other aspects of development, promotes research and training, and provides inputs to policymakers based on its research. The main areas of research are rural development and poverty, agriculture and food security, irrigation and water management, public finance, demography, health, and the environment.
CESS was established in 1980 and is supported by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). CESS undertakes research projects and studies sponsored by the state and central governments, and by international agencies such as the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, the European Community, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Asian Development Bank. The Centre also offers MPhil and PhD programmes in Development Studies, in collaboration with Dr B.R. Ambedkar Open University.
Website: www.cess.ac.in
Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalam (Women's University) (SPMVV), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) is an educational and research institute in Andhra Pradesh aimed at helping women acquire advanced knowledge and skills to shape their lives and careers. The University’s objectives are to offer educational services to women of all ages; to advance knowledge through research and scholarly activity; to serve the interests of women through facilitating networking and collaboration; and to disseminate knowledge to benefit Andhra Pradesh, India, and the international community.
SPMVV was founded in 1983 by Sri N.T. Rama Rao, at that time the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The University offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in subjects including applied mathematics, life sciences, business management, music and fine arts, education, social sciences, and engineering. There is currently a student population of 2,000, with 150 academic staff and 250 support staff.
Website: www.padmavatiwomen-univ.org
Save the Children-Bal Raksha, Bharat, India
Save the Children began working in India in pre-Independence days by providing relief during emergencies. The current Save the Children-BRB programmes are located in 12 states and union territories in India, and focus on the following areas: education, child protection, HIV/AIDS, health, hunger and malnutrition, and emergency response and rehabilitation. Specific activities include promoting child management in schools, establishing community-based child protection mechanisms, promoting peer education and support on issues related to reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases, and providing training on village-level emergency preparedness and disaster response.
Save the Children-BRB is the twenty-eighth independent member of the International Save the Children Alliance, and all Alliance members working in India transferred their programmes into Save the Children-Bal Raksha, Bharat in October 2007.
Website: www.savethechildren.in
Peru
In Peru, Young Lives is known as Niños del Milenio. You can visit the dedicated website (in Spanish and English) at www.ninosdelmilenio.org
Principal Investigators: Javier Escobal (GRADE), Dr Mary Penny MD (IIN)
Lead Qualitative Researcher: Patricia Ames Ramello (IEP / GRADE)
Policy Coordinator and Senior Researcher: Professor Santiago Cueto (GRADE)
Grupo de Análisis para el Desarollo (GRADE)
The Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE, Group for the Analysis of Development) is a private non-profit research centre whose aim is to conduct applied research to stimulate and enrich the debate, design, and implementation of public policies. GRADE focuses on the study of economic, educational, environmental, and social topics, in areas relevant to the development of Peru and other Latin American countries. Current research is centred on ten areas: macroeconomic analysis; rural economy and development; education; employment and labour markets; evaluation of projects and social programmes; institutions and development; environment and natural resources; industrial organisation, regulation, and innovation; poverty and equity; and health, nutrition, and human development.
Founded in Lima in 1980, GRADE is governed by an Assembly of Associates who set the research topics and define development strategies. GRADE researchers have traditionally combined research and academic work with public service. All researchers participate in local and international academic activities, and many are also involved in consultative commissions, dialogue groups, and national councils organised around topics related to their research areas.
Website: www.grade.org.pe
Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (IIN)
The Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (Institute for Nutritional Research) is a private Peruvian non-profit research institute dedicated to health and nutrition research, teaching, training and services. The Institute aims to develop high-quality research in order to generate new knowledge that contributes to development and well-being; to disseminate knowledge and share experiences with academic groups, civil society, and decision-makers at the local and international level; and to provide nutrition and health assistance to needy people. The main areas of research include: infant feeding and nutrition; management of severe childhood nutrition; maternal and perinatal health and nutrition; pre-school, school-age, and adolescent nutrition; food security; development and nutrition; poverty and health; infectious diseases; and environmental health.
The Institute began in 1961 as a centre for research and rehabilitation of severe infant malnutrition within a larger clinic, and became an independent organisation in 1971. It works in coordination with the Peruvian Ministries of Health and Education, government institutions, national and international universities, community organisations, and private institutions. Its staff is composed of professionals covering a number of disciplines, including medicine, nutrition, public health, and economics.
Website: www.iin.sld.pe
Save the Children-UK, Peru
Since January 2007 Save the Children-UK no longer works in Peru and the Young Lives policy team is based within GRADE.
Vietnam
Principal Investigator: Le Thuc Duc
Policy Coordinator: Nguyen Hoai Chau
Centre for Analysis and Forecast, Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (CAF-VASS)
The Centre for Analyses and Forecasting (CAF) is an institute-member of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences. CAF’s functions mainly consist of analysing the impacts of policies and forecasting major movements in both the economy and social life of Vietnam. CAF‘s academic activities are organised in five departments: economic forecasting, applied microeconomics, institutions and governance, economic integration, and development studies. CAF is active in the areas of international cooperation, training, and capacity building for local researchers and policymakers at the sub-national level.
The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) is a government body that studies the fundamental issues in Vietnamese social sciences. It was established in 1953 as the National Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, and was re-named in 2004. VASS is composed of 27 research institutes that conduct theoretical research and applied studies in the social sciences and humanities with a special focus on important issues arising from social and economic transformation and reform in Vietnam, and Vietnam’s growing links with the rest of the world. Through its research institutes, VASS conducts general studies in areas including economics, national economy, world economy, law, literature, linguistics, history, culture, philosophy, archaeology, ethnology, psychology, sociology, family and gender studies, religion, international relations, national strategy, regional development, and library-information sciences.
General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO)
The Government Statistics Office (GSO) is the state agency in Vietnam responsible for conducting statistical activities and providing socio-economic information to agencies, organisations, and individuals. Through its Social and Environmental Issues Department, GSO conducts the quantitative survey work and data analysis for Young Lives in Vietnam in close cooperation with CAF/VASS.
GSO has a full survey infrastructure throughout the country and down to the commune level in 61 provinces. It undertakes surveys on social and economic issues, supplies information to government departments, and other organisations, and provides advice on statistical methodology and interpretation. GSO works with other governmental institutions in Vietnam, along with international organisations such as UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank. It carried out the 1993 and 1998 Vietnam Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS) and the Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in 1996 and 2000 in collaboration with UNICEF.
Nguyen Phong (Director) is the staff member with formal responsibility for Young Lives at GSO. Tran Minh Chau (Deputy Director) manages the data collection on a day-to-day basis.
Website: www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx
Save the Children-UK, Vietnam
Save the Children UK in Vietnam focuses on five priority areas: child poverty alleviation; improved access to and quality of primary education and promotion of early childhood care and development for ethnic minority children; prevention, care and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS; prevention of child trafficking and exploitative or harmful migration; and child-focussed emergency preparedness and response. Current activities include improving young children’s access to services in Quang Dinh and Dien Bien provinces; providing access to care and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS; and combating urban child poverty in Ho Chi Minh.
Save the Children UK works in Vietnam with a variety of governmental and non-governmental partners in the north, centre and south of the country, in urban and rural, lowland and highland, ethnic majority and ethnic minority contexts. The Vietnam office was opened in Hanoi in 1990, with a project office opened in Ho Chi Minh in 1992.
Website: www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/33_996.htm
United Kingdom
Department of International Development, University of Oxford
The Directorate of Young Lives is based at the Department of International Development (Queen Elizabeth House) at the University of Oxford. QEH is an interdisciplinary research department that has two aims: to conduct high-level research which advances understanding of the complex economic, social, and political processes of change in developing countries; and to educate students to understand these processes in disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives. Research at QEH is divided into five broad thematic areas: international and national economic development; human development, gender, and the environment; forced migration; development and conflict; and states, markets, and politics: Africa and South Asia.
QEH is the University of Oxford’s centre for development studies, and forms part of the Social Sciences Division of the University. It provides a focus for the University’s research and teaching on development studies. Young Lives is one of a number of research centres based at QEH, including the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security, and Ethnicity (CRISE) and the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC).
Young Lives staff located in Oxford include Jo Boyden (Director), Graham Bray (Programme Manager), Professor Stefan Dercon (Poverty Research Director), Caroline Knowles (Communications Manager), and Kate Prudden (Project Coordinator).
Website: www.qeh.ox.ac.uk
Save the Children-UK, London
Save the Children-UK works in 52 countries around the world, with a focus on four main issues: education, health, tackling hunger, and child protection. Save the Children-UK also has expertise in four cross-cutting themes that affect the quality of children’s lives: children’s rights, HIV and AIDS, poverty and economic justice, and conflict and natural disasters. In addition, campaigning and advocacy work aims to influence policymakers in the UK and overseas to adopt policies that create real and lasting change for the world’s poorest children. Save the Children-UK also responds to emergencies worldwide through protecting families’ right to basic services and responding to children’s needs in emergency situations.
Save the Children is the world’s independent children’s charity, working to support children’s rights and to deliver immediate and lasting improvements in children’s lives worldwide. The Save the Children Fund was first established in London in 1919, and has grown into an international alliance of 28 national member organisations working in 120 countries. Save the Children UK works closely with partners in the international alliance, both in programmes with children and in international campaigns, and works to tackle child poverty in the UK.
Young Lives staff in London include Caitlin Porter (Policy Manager), Helen Murray (Policy Officer) and Anna Wansbrough-Jones (Policy Assistant).
Website: www.savethechildren.org.uk
Child and Youth Studies Group, Centre for Research in Education and Education Technology, the Open University
The Child and Youth Studies Group is one of eleven interdisciplinary research groups within the Centre for Research in Education and Education Technology (CREET) at the Open University. Members of the group draw on a range of approaches and research methodologies, including developmental psychology, childhood studies, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and cultural studies. The group encompasses studies of children's and young people's experiences, representations, learning, development, inclusion, and social participation. Of concern are the institutions and social practices that shape their lives, and the cultural and personal constructions of childhood and youth that mediate these processes. Research priorities reflect the diversity of childhoods and the diversity of children's lived experiences.
CREET is one of the largest educational research units in the UK, pursuing interdisciplinary research of the highest quality. Its aims are to inform educational practice; to improve modern learning technologies; and to influence international conceptualisations of educational processes, policies, and practices.
Professor Martin Woodhead is the Child Research Director, leading on qualitative research for Young Lives, and the Principal Investigator for the Transitions in Early Childhood sub-study of Young Lives, funded by Bernard van Leer Foundation and based at the Open University.
Website: http://creet.open.ac.uk/groups/cysg/index.cfm
Institute of Education, University of London
The Institute of Education (IOE) is a college of the University of London that conducts research and offers graduate degrees in all areas of education and related aspects of the social sciences and professional practice. IOE is the largest centre of educational research in the UK and houses a number of smaller units, including the Centre for Longitudinal Studies and the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning. The Institute’s aim is to enhance theoretical, methodological, and evidence-based understandings of education in its broader relationship with society. Research addresses questions including the following: the use of international, comparative, and global perspectives in education; advancing the values of equality, social justice, and human rights in education; understanding the links between theory and practice in education; and building clear and explicit connections between education and other social domains such as the family, health, and welfare.
Virginia Morrow is Young Lives Child Research Associate, based at the Institute of Education.
Website: www.ioe.ac.uk/
Statistical Services Centre, University of Reading
The Statistical Services Centre is part of the School of Applied Statistics at the University of Reading. It provides training, consultancy, analysis and research services to a wide range of clients in Europe and in the developing world. Current activities involve work for several international donors, often in collaboration with other partners. This includes, for example a multi-year contract to supply biometric services to the Rural Livelihoods and Environment Division of DFID, including substantial inputs to managing the monitoring and evaluation of food security interventions in Malawi. Areas of increasing concern to SSC staff include statistical computing, complex data management and data conservation issues, and the effective integration of qualitative and quantitative data in analysis. Capacity-building is central to SSC's collaborations with developing country institutions.
The Young Lives Data Advisor at the University of Reading is Cathy Garlick.
Website: www.reading.ac.uk/ssc/
Young Lives partners during Phase 1 / Phase 2 of the project (2001-2006)
Health and Development Research Group, South African Medical Research Council, South Africa
The Health and Development Group's research aims to understand the health implications of development processes in South Africa and to find ways to optimise health outcomes. The Group's research aims to develop a holistic understanding of the impacts of change in the physical, psycho-social, economic, and political environments on health and wellbeing with a special focus on urban health, equity and vulnerable groups. Our contact person was John Seager who carried out an initial study into South Africa as a possible study country for Young Lives.
Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is one of the world's leading centres for research and teaching on development. IDS is home to around ninety full-time researchers from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and IDS holds an international reputation for the quality of its work and the intellectual rigour with which it applies academic skills to real world policy challenges. Howard White and Andrew Masters were the Young Lives contacts.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world's leading schools of public health and tropical medicine. It aims to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching, advanced training and consultancy in international public health and tropical medicine. Staff and students come from over 100 countries and collaborative links are held with institutions around the world. The link for Young Lives was Sharon Huttly in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health.
Research and Training Centre for Community Development (RTCCD), Vietnam
RTCCD
is a Vietnamese non-governmental organisation working under the
umbrella of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations
(VUSTA). Dr Tran Tuan of RTCCD was Principal Investigator for Young
Lives in Vietnam from 2001 to 2006).
South Bank University, UK
South Bank University in London specialises in applied and policy-related research and has nearly 20,000 students. It has a strong tradition of social science methods training, particularly qualitative methods, with a successful Masters degree and PhD programme in Development Studies. Trudy Harpham, Professor of Urban Development and Policy was the Young Lives contact.
We thank all the Phase 1 and 2 partner institutes and team members for their significant inputs into the early development of Young Lives.