Drawing on two decades of Young Lives longitudinal data and research from the four study countries, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, this policy brief explores how climate shocks impact women’s economic empowerment, particularly in the poorest households and rural communities. It reveals that climate shocks have long-term and inter-generational effects on young people’s nutritional health, skills development and education outcomes.  Together with persistent gender inequalities these affect women and girls’ unpaid care work, job choices and opportunities.

This latest policy brief from Young Lives summarises research on unpaid care work from over two decades of the study, including new findings from Round 7 of the quantitative survey, collected in 2023–24, and sets out ways that policy can lighten the load. 

Longitudinal research involves observing the same individuals repeatedly over time to analyse trends and changes, identify causes and assess long-term effects. Birth cohort studies, are a specific type of longitudinal study that follow a group of people who were born at a similar date or period of time. Unlike cross-sectional studies, which collect data at a specific point in time, longitudinal research can span months, years or even decades, offering deeper insights into changes over time across various fields.
 

This study looks at how genetic risk factors and lifestyle factors—in particular, a person’s diet— interact to affect various health traits related to heart disease and diabetes, such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Results are based on data from urban participants from the Young Lives study in Peru, collected in 2022. Understanding the interactions between genetic factors and lifestyle factors is important because it could help guide better nutrition advice to reduce cardiometabolic risk.