Young Lives is a longitudinal study that has been following children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam since 2002 to understand the impacts of poverty. It aims to generate high-quality evidence to influence pro-poor policies. Key themes include health, education, gender and child protection. Young Lives works to build research capacity, disseminate findings, promote evidence uptake by policymakers, and innovate methodology. Case studies show how Young Lives research has contributed to programs like Ethiopia's Child Research and Policy Forum and Peru's Juntos conditional cash transfer program.

1. How can we use research to influence public
policies? A case study from Young Lives
Conference on Social Mobility, CEEY, Mexico
November18th
Santiago Cueto
Country Coordinator for Peru

2. Young Lives / Niños del Milenio:
A longitudinal study of childhood poverty
• Our aim is to shed light on the drivers and impacts of child poverty,
and generate evidence to help policymakers design programmes
that make a real difference to poor children and their families.
• We have been following 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the
states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam since
2002.
• YL is an international collaborative study coordinated by the
University of Oxford and core-funded by the Department for
International Development (DFID), with the support of several
other donors.

3. Study design: ‘From photograph to film strip’

4. Themes
• Low attrition between 2002 and 2013 (around 5%, excluding
deaths).
• Young Lives has aligned research and policy themes to some key
MDGs and EFAs goals, and now to the SDGs to reinforce our main
idea: inclusive policies –‘leaving no child behind’– are key to
creating healthier, more productive and just societies, and to break
the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
• Our main themes are: Poverty & inequality; Health & nutrition;
Education; Gender & youth; and Child protection.

5. Theory of change I
• Critically analyses whether what we are doing will achieve the aim
we want
By:
• Setting out underpinning assumptions and approaches
• Allows an organisation to set out the change that ought to happen
and its role within that (and the role of others)
• ToC is complemented/supported by other plans and reporting
• Building on what we have done

6. Theory of change II: Our tasks are
• To generate high-quality longitudinal evidence about the correlates and
impact of poverty on children’s lives in contexts of economic and social
change;
• To disseminate this evidence in accessible ways to global and national
stakeholders;
• Look to be used in the improvement of policies of governments and
other organizations at all stages of children’s lives;
• We also do advocacy to generate political will and shape policy agendas,
accountability and good governance within government and systems;
adherence to human rights and observing children’s rights; positive
resource allocation by ministries, donors and international organizations;
and community change.

7. Theory of change III: document
published in 2015, includes
• The core challenge of childhood poverty: reducing child poverty and inequality;
• The dimensions of our work: Features of country contexts in which we work;
stakeholders with whom we work; the barriers to using evidence to tackle child
poverty; and the entry points through which Young Lives can deliver change.
• Our strategy, organized into four broad and interconnecting ‘channels’ of
activity: building CAPACITY; generating RESEARCH; promoting UPTAKE of
findings; and INNOVATION in methodology and knowledge.
• We also identify expected inputs that should occur, as well as outputs and
outcomes.
• The expected impact is “policies and programmes to support poor children and
young people are based on rigorous evidence about children’s experiences,
development and outcomes”.
• http://www.younglives.org.uk/content/young-lives-theory-change-1

8. Theory of change V

9. Have we made a difference?
• Easier to measure inputs and outputs than outcomes
and impact. Difficult to make causal attributions!
• We keep records of publications, meetings, downloads
of publications and data bases, visits to web sites,
quotes from stakeholders, and participation in national
and international boards, meetings and conferences.
• Need a better conceptual model and methodologies to
measure impact of research on policies.

10. Case studies (1)
Example 1: Creation of Child Research and Policy Forum (CRPF) in Ethiopia,
following research project which brought stakeholders together
• Benefits: Recognition of importance of face to fact contacts, improving research
quality by peer interaction, and creation of space where researchers could
engage with Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs
• Challenges: keeping it going
Example 2: Relationship with UNICEF´s Office of Research to study the drivers of
violence.
• Benefits: Engagement of national teams (Young Lives and UNICEF country offices)
favoured involvement in national debates; working with partners increases
dissemination potential
• Challenges: Managing expectations of partners, reacting quickly

11. Case studies (2)
Example 3: Juntos (conditional cash-transfer program) in Peru
• We developed a series of studies on this program, focusing on different aspects
and using a variety of designs.
• Benefits: the accumulation of YL´s evidence, plus that generated by others,
allowed us to be a powerful partner of this program.
• Challenges: continue to be engaged with program officers as they rotate with
some frequency.
Example 4: publicly archived data set and promoting its use
• Total external users = 1,300. 1/3 non-OECD. Workshops on data use in Peru.
• Benefits: Stimulate external research potential; high VFM return for initial
investment; YL´s data set becomes increasingly interesting with every round.
• Challenges: Capacity gaps in low-/middle-income countries (researcher and
Government); no tradition of using research.

12. Case studies (3)
Example 5: Education
• Oxfam has used the Young Lives book Changing Lives in a Changing
World to develop Everyone Counts, aimed at children ages 9 to 12.
• We encourage the usage of our studies in universities, to help
develop the skills of the next generation of policy makers and
developers
• Benefits: develop sensitivity and skills among different young
audiences
• Challenges: develop skills in the teachers who use these materials

13. Meet Seble (From Everyone Counts)
“My name is Seble (Seb-lay). I think that I am 12 years old but
I’m not quite sure. I live with my family in a village in a rural area
of Oromiya state in Ethiopia… I started going to school when I
was eight years old. I still go to school but I’m behind for my
age… My own health hasn’t been good. I had tuberculosis when I
was six and I’m still not completely better. I have also had
malaria twice. If I am able to go to secondary school, I will have
to go and live with my grandmother in the nearest town. My
older sister has already done this.

14. Seble
I help my mother a lot in the house, cleaning and making coffee,
bread and injera. I learnt to make coffee when I was four years
old! I also fetch firewood and water. I like collecting firewood. My
friends and I talk and tell jokes while we walk to and from the
mountain to collect firewood.
Since I was 11 I have also been working part-time as a labourer,
doing work such as planting or picking vegetables. I work with
other girls in a group and how much we get paid depends on the
number of lines of vegetables we pick. We work up to eight
hours a day. After work we chat together.

15. Seble
I usually work two or three days a week after school, depending on
when work is available. For this I earn 6 birr (about £0.18) a day.
Sometimes I also sell bread to earn money for my family. I help on the
family farm as well, grinding corn for bread, and weeding teff.
I would like to be a teacher when I am older. I don’t want to get
married young but I believe that my parents may insist that I do. I
would like to wait until I am 19.”

16. Looking forward: what does it all add
up to?
• We have produced summary country reports descrbibing
main trends after every round, one pending for round five.
• We are preparing synthesis reports for each country and
thematic cross-country reports in education, educational
trajectories, impact of preschool, school effectiveness,
adolescence, and tracing the consequences of poverty and
inequality for children.
• Seeking opportunities to continue studying both cohorts
and YL´s children (the next generation!)

17. Find out more
www.younglives.org.uk
• methods and research papers
• datasets (UK Data Archive)
• publications
• child profiles and photos
• e-newsletter
www.ninosdelmilenio.org
(for Peru, in Spanish)

18. Our social media
Facebook y Twitter:
/YoungLivesStudy
/NinosDelMilenio.org
@Yloxford
@NinosdelMilenio