81304 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Early Childhood Development through an Integrated Program: Evidence from the Philippines Graeme Armecin, Jere Behrman, Paulita Duazo, Sharon Ghuman, Socorro Gultiano, Author(s) Elizabeth King, Nanette Lee Contact eking@worldbank.org Country Philippines Organizing Theme Health, Education and Skills Status The Project is ongoing but the evaluation is complete Intervention Category Early Childhood Development Sector Social Protection More attention and resources have been devoted in recent years to early childhood development (ECD) in low- and middle-income countries. Rigorous studies on the effectiveness of ECD-related programs for improving children's development in various dimensions in the developing world are scant. The authors evaluate an important ECD initiative of the Philippine government using longitudinal data collected over three years on a cohort of 6,693 children age 0-4 years at baseline in two "treatment" regions and a "control" region that did not receive the intervention. The initiative includes a wide range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services programs. The authors estimate its impact by using "intent-to-treat" difference-in-difference propensity score matching Abstract estimators to control for a variety of observed characteristics measured at the municipality, barangay, household, and child level and unobserved fixed characteristics, with differential impacts by age of children and duration of exposure to the program. There has been a significant improvement in the cognitive, social, motor, and language development, and in short-term nutritional status of children who reside in ECD program areas compared to those in non-program areas, particularly for those under age four at the end of the evaluation period. The proportions of children below age four with worms and diarrhea also have been lowered significantly in program compared to non-program areas, but there are effects in the opposite direction for older children so the overall impact on these two indicators is mixed. Gender Connection Gender Informed Analysis Gender Outcomes Children cognitive skills, nutrition IE Design Propensity Score Matching The Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program's goal is to improve survival and developmental potential of children by minimizing health risks of young children, contributing to the knowledge of parents about child development, advocating for child-friendly policy, improving the attitude of child-related service providers and Intervention mobilizing the resources to have viable financing for ECD projects. The project did not introduce new services, instead it provided an integrated, multi-sectorial approach to combining services that include center-based and home-based day care programs. A new service provider, the Child Development Worker, was placed in all program areas. Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Intervention Period The program began in 1999 The original sample was comprised about 5,000 households from two program regions and one non-program region. Approximately 6774 children were successfully included in the Sample population baseline and two follow up surveys. During the baseline survey, children aged 0-4 were selected to be followed up. There are 4140 recipient children in program areas, and 2359 non-recipient children in non-program areas. Children in treatment areas are matched, using propensity score matching, with similar Comparison conditions children in control communities. Unit of analysis Child level Evaluation Period 2001-2003 For children exposed to the program there is a statistically significant positive impact on outcomes related to child cognitive, social, motor skills, language development and short Results term nutritional status. The program impacts tend to increase with duration. Younger children experienced greater impacts. Primary study limitations There was some attrition in the survey leading to potentially biased results. National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, the Funding Source Global Development Network, the Department of Social Welfare and Development of the Government of the Philippines, the World Bank Research Support Budget, NICHD postdoctoral training fellowship at the University of Michigan Armecin, G., Behrman, J., Duazo, P., Ghuman, S., Gultiano, S., King, E., & Lee, N. (2006). Reference(s) Early childhood development through an integrated program: evidence from the Philippines. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (3922). Link to Studies https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/8659 Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2