have been weighed, given iron, vitamins or deworming
spend more time with their children, important gains
medicine, and to have spent fewer days in bed.
could be obtained from increasing fathers’ involvement and interactions. This might be particularly relevant in
Furthermore, in 2008 the households assigned to
the context we study in Nicaragua, where fathers – and
receive only the basic treatment did not have higher
to a lesser extent mothers – frequently migrate for work.
expenditures than those in the control group, yet these
This may bring in the needed financial resources, but
households continued to show significant differences in
at the same time it causes fathers to be absent from the
these early childhood investments. These effects cannot
daily lives of their young children for long stretches of
easily be explained by the earlier cash transfers. Rather,
time. Does increasing awareness of good early childhood
they suggest that the Atención a Crisis programme had an
practices in such a context increase their investment in
effect on behaviour even 2 years after the programme
their young children?
had been discontinued. Two pilot interventions were designed to analyse these This, in turn, can help explain why programme impacts
questions. The first intervention relied on home visits by
were sustained 2 years after the programme ended. The
trained educators, who visited young children’s homes
lack of fade-out stands in contrast with evaluations
on a regular basis to teach parents about good parenting
of a number of interventions in both developed and
practices, focusing on play, praise and a caring home
developing countries. Indeed, many other interventions,
environment, and including messages on nutrition
whether nutritional supplements or centre-based
and hygiene (Macours et al., 2012a). In a random subset
interventions, only target the child directly. The fact
of villages they worked only with mothers and their
that fade-out of impacts appears to occur for many
children, while in the other randomly selected subset,
early childhood programmes, but not for Atención a Crisis,
they tried to actively engage the fathers.
suggests that the behavioural changes made by parents might be important in obtaining lasting gains in
Engaging the fathers, not surprisingly, was
childhood development.
challenging, given their frequent absences from the home. Nevertheless, the results show that
Can information alone work?
interventions that included the fathers were more
If changes in parental investment behaviour through
effective in increasing early childhood cognitive and
information directed towards mothers were important
socio-emotional skills, and this was especially strong
to understand the impact of the ccts, what then is
for boys. The evidence also shows that the intervention
the potential of intensive interventions providing
changed knowledge and attitudes regarding early
information only, and not cash? And does the impact
childhood practices, motivated parents and children
of such information interventions differ depending
to engage in more joint activities, led to less physical
on whether they target mothers or fathers in the
punishment and more praise, and improved nutrition
households? We set out to investigate these questions
practices. In terms of magnitude, the impact on
in a context where seasonal migration constitutes an
cognitive and socio-emotional skills of this information
important part of the livelihood of poor households.
intervention achieved impacts similar to those of the cct programme.
The question about fathers is especially pertinent, as early childhood interventions typically target mothers,
A second pilot intervention, currently in the planning
but in poor rural households in developing countries it
phase, will investigate whether providing information
might often be the fathers who manage most financial
about parenting practices to mothers and fathers of
resources and make decisions on possible investments
young children can also be effective when sent through
in early childhood. And while mothers might possibly
daily text messages. The text message approach has the
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• E a r l y Ch i l d h o o d M a t t e r s • N o v e m b e r 2013