Oxford project in AP gets 16 mn pound funding

London, Jan 30: The 15-year old Young Lives project led by University of Oxford that aims to find ways of addressing childhood poverty effectively has received a further funding of £16 million from the Department of International Development.

The latest funding will enable the project to continue till 2017. Three thousand children in Andhra Pradesh are among thousands of children taking part in the study. The study will also focus on the effects of global economic crisis on the children being studied.

The project was launched in 2001 and based in the Oxford Department of International Development. It is tracking the lives of 12,000 children in four countries – India, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Peru.

The project leader of Young Lives at Oxford University, Dr Jo Boyden, said: "No longitudinal study quite like Young Lives has ever been carried out, particularly one involving the long-term participation of children and their communities in developing countries.

"We are not just trying to measure poverty and create statistics. We are looking at changes over time, how and why these happen, and what they mean for poor children and their families."

The research focuses on two cohorts of children in each country: 2,000 children aged between 6-17 months in 2002; and 1,000 children aged seven or eight years old in 2002.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)