Children and Youth
How Reflecting Develops and Affects Well-being Throughout Childhood
How Relaxing Develops and Affects Well-being Throughout Childhood
Ethical Considerations When Applying Behavioural Science in Projects Focused on Children
Let Us Continue Learning
It’s Not Too Late to Act on Early Learning
COVID-19: Missing More Than a Classroom
COVID-19: Effects of School Closures on Foundational Skills and Promising Practices for Monitoring and Mitigating Learning Loss
Investigating Risks and Opportunities for Children in a Digital World
School-Related Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Building an Evidence Base for Stronger Schools
Social Benefits and the Feedback Effect of Child Poverty in European Countries
Social Protection and Its Effects on Gender Equality: A Literature Review
The Impact of Community Violence on Educational Outcomes: A Review of the Literature
Impact Evaluation in Settings of Fragility and Humanitarian Emergency
Encryption, Privacy and Children’s Right to Protection from Harm
Continuing Learning for the Most Vulnerable During COVID-19
Transnational Families, Care Arrangements and the State in Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Nicaragua has the second-highest emigration rate in Central America behind El Salvador and 40 per cent of Nicaraguan households receive remittances. In contrast to migrants from other Central American countries however Nicaraguan migrants are more likely to move within the region to Costa Rica than to the United States. This paper is concerned specifically with the implications of migration within Central America for family life. Focusing on the case of Costa Rica and Nicaragua the paper argues that the provision of care in Nicaraguan transnational families occurs in the context of multiple insecurities both historical and contemporary. In this sense migration represents both a solution to the insecure climate of care provision and a source of further insecurity. The paper frames this analysis within scholarship on the privatization of care work caregiving in transnational families and historical patterns of diverse family configurations. It then draws on more than 24 months of ethnographic research between 2009 and 2016 including interviews and participant observation with migrants living in Costa Rica and their families in Nicaragua to show how Nicaraguan families develop strategies based on a history of informal and flexible caregiving. In particular marriage informality and grandmother caregiving are highlighted. While these informal strategies allow families to navigate the challenges migration and family separation entail they also contribute to continued vulnerability and reinforce the gendered burdens of caregiving within transnational families.
Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Context of Child Custody and Child Maintenance
The division of care and responsibility for children including financial care is usually determined by the family law of the State. This study identifies some of the most prevalent custody and child maintenance regimes in cases of divorce dissolution of a civil union and separation of parents. It examines the various regimes with particular emphasis on their impact on gender equality and women’s rights. Until the 19th century a male prerogative over guardianship and legal custody of children was the norm in Roman law and in secular systems. The male prerogative has been rescinded in secular law systems in accordance with the international human rights law requirement of the elimination of discrimination against women in the family. However it has been retained in patriarchal religious and customary systems which are endorsed by those States that maintain theocratic religious-based or plural legal systems. Three overarching issues relating to custody may negatively impact women’s rights: domestic violence the ongoing danger of which is often neglected in custody or visitation awards; the weaker bargaining position of women in the family as a result of patriarchal legal cultural or economic contexts which will disadvantage them in cases where the custody is subject to negotiation; and interpretation of the best interest of the child in a gender-biased way.
The Effect of Cash-based Interventions on Gender Outcomes in Development and Humanitarian Settings
Cash transfers are often considered a gender-sensitive development tool because women have traditionally been the target for large social cash transfer programs. However targeting women does not automatically yield favourable outcomes for women and girls. While there is emerging evidence from the development sector to suggest that cash transfers can positively impact women and girls across an array of protection and empowerment dimensions the results are often mixed and poorly understood. The evidence base on gender and cash in humanitarian settings where the use of cash is on the rise is even more limited. Without proper gender considerations there is a concern that cash transfers may fail to reach those left furthest behind potentially limiting rather than generating opportunity for greater gender-transformative change. This paper begins by presenting an overview of the latest research on cash transfers gender protection and empowerment outcomes. It continues by discussing some of the programme design features to consider when seeking to improve gender outcomes. Finally the paper concludes with a set of research questions that can help shape future research and practice in this area.
Feminist Perspectives on the 2030 Agenda in Ecuador
This discussion paper examines how the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been integrated into the national debate on gender equality in Ecuador. It identifies which policies from the Agenda have been taken into account and which have been rejected. It also examines how the actors involved in clarifying the scope of these policies—women’s movements sexual diversity organizations public officials and United Nations agencies working on gender equality—have coordinated their activities with the Agenda. In so doing it attempts to answer the following questions: How does the 2030 Agenda interact with the gender equality agenda in Ecuador? Where do they intersect and what are their points of contention? How has the global agenda influenced national policies and actions on gender equality and women’s rights? The paper also assesses whether newer feminist and sexual diversity organizations in Ecuador are aware of and incorporate the 2030 Agenda and conversely whether the Agenda addresses the debates and demands made by such organizations in recent years. Lastly it provides some recommendations on how to better translate the goals and targets on gender equality from the 2030 Agenda into Ecuador’s national gender policies.