Countries such as Bangladesh and Mozambique have made universal access to pre-primary education a priority in recent years. Other countries hoping to improve their pre-primary education programs can learn from the experiences of Bangladesh and Mozambique; specifically, some of the necessary conditions to make pre-primary education programs effective. ...
The World Bank, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) designed a research program addressing how to improve education and learning outcomes for forcibly displaced populations and host communities facing poverty and other hardships. The World Bank contracted AIR ...
In 2010, the government of the Republic of Zambia implemented the Child Grant cash transfer program, the results of which offer evidence that small-scale cash transfers to poor rural households with young children can stimulate economic activity while alleviating poverty. Building on this, in 2011, the Zambian government—through the Ministry ...
The majority of students with disabilities spend most of the school day in general education classes and most are capable of meeting the goals described by advocates of deeper learning. In this report, we review previous efforts to promote better educational outcomes for students with disabilities.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are bringing about a paradigm shift in what it means to be a reader, and in how education systems must be restructured to support children’s acquisition of comprehension and critical reading skills. AIR is providing the Ministry of Education in each country with a set of measurable, ...
The First 1,000 Most Critical Days Program was designed to offer mothers and babies in Zambia a suite of interventions to improve their health and development. This report is the result of an evaluation of the efficacy of this program.
The relationship between happiness and income has been at the center of a vibrant debate, as emotional states are an important determinant of health and social behavior. This study investigated whether a government-run unconditional cash transfer paid directly to women in poor households had an impact on self-reported happiness. ...
Large numbers of Zambian children suffer from nutrition-related disorders such as low birth weight, wasting, being underweight, chronic malnutrition, and various nutrient deficiencies. AIR and its partners are evaluating the First 1000 Most Critical Days Program, which addresses these issues by targeting households with pregnant women or children under two ...
Jonathan A. Simonetta is Vice President, International Development at AIR. As Vice President, he mentors researchers, oversees projects, monitors overall project performance, and leads business development for our International Development Division.
Despite high levels of knowledge, HIV incidence does not seem to be decreasing among adolescents in Zambia. Girls are much more likely to be infected than boys and intergenerational sex, transactional sex, and multiple concurrent partnerships are normalized. The education sector is struggling to implement effective HIV prevention. The Community ...