There is increasing recognition that interventions that improve development in the early years of childhood can have long-lasting consequences throughout life. The challenge is to identify interventions that are not only effective at improving child development, but are also cost-effective and potentially implementable on a large scale. These challenges are particularly acute in the context of developing countries.

IFS researchers developed a cost-effective intervention to improve child development in Colombia. The intervention consisted of weekly home visits to impoverished mothers with children between the ages of 1 and 3.5 years. Visits were made by local women who were representatives of a nationwide conditional cash transfer programme but had no prior experience of home visiting. The programme not only improved the cognitive and language development of the children who received the home visits, but also provided an attractive model for policymakers on a global scale. This evidence has resulted in a similar, suitably adapted, home visiting programme being implemented by the Peruvian Government as part of their Early Childhood Development Strategy. The scope of the research is also expanding and a similar intervention, including some new features, is about to be piloted in India.