Location:
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC
Fourth Floor Conference Facility
Thursday, March 6, 2003
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
R.S.V.P.

Abstract

The presentation discusses research conducted over three decades in four villages of rural Guatemala. From 1969 to 1977, the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) carried out a nutrition experiment in which two villages received a nutritious supplement called “atole” and two others a less nutritious supplement called “fresco”. This study demonstrated that exposure to the atole during pregnancy and the first three years of life had important effects on child growth but only a minor effect on cognitive functioning. Later, in 1988-89, a follow-up study was conducted of residents and out-migrants when the subjects were 11 to 26 years of age and showed that exposure to atole had enduring effects on body size and composition and also led to greater work capacity among males. The timing of menarche was not affected. Most importantly, the study documented important effects on educational achievement and to some extent intelligence. Interesting interactions with schooling and socio-economic status were found: effects were greater for poorer subjects and for those that obtained more schooling.

A new follow up, now that the subjects are 26 to 41 years of age, is being undertaken by a consortium of institutions: Emory University, IFPRI, INCAP and the University of Pennsylvania. The subjects are all adults, with schooling completed, occupations chosen, and many married. The main hypothesis links nutrition in early childhood to adult human capital- measured in physical, health, educational and social terms- and economic productivity. Economic measures include wealth and assets, marriage assets, annual household per capita expenditures and income and earnings. The main policy implications of the findings, if the hypothesis is proven, is that investments in early childhood nutrition may be viewed as long-term economic investments.

Please RSVP to 202-862-8107 or Email: S.Hill-Lee@cgiar.org.