Investing in children leads to social mobility in later life

Dhaka, 17 May 2026: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Oxford Policy Management (OPM) brought together government officials and representatives from development agencies, academia and civil society in an event which highlighted the causal connections between early childhood development (ECD), education, poverty, and social mobility, and identified social protection strategies that could address these issues. Investing in children, whether through supporting parents to provide early stimulation, pre-primary education, nutrition, health or family income, promotes a population equipped to face the challenges and embrace the opportunities of the 21st century.

BIGD and OPM co-created the event, with researchers from OPM programmes, DEEP and Thrive, with the aim of promoting dialogue between research and policy while making the case for integrating early childhood development and social protection into the Bangladesh national poverty strategy to create the conditions for increased social mobility.

The event opened with an overview of research on the key workshop themes: from BIGD on social mobility and Thrive and DEEP on early childhood development and poverty.

Dr Jena Hamadani, Emeritus Scientist, icddr,b and Thrive Country Principle investigator said, “Supporting early childhood development promotes a skilled workforce that can take advantage of opportunities and contribute to a productive and healthy economy. Early childhood development can create a socially mobile population, while improving the lives of individuals, and provides an incredible return on investment when compared with later interventions.”

The event featured sessions exploring research into integrating parenting support with cash transfers, a case study examining the intergenerational impacts of productive safety nets and Thrives’ Saving Bangladeshi Babies’ Brains programme, which delivers ECD policies at scale through the Government of Bangladesh.

Dr Abdur Razzaque, Chairman, RAPID, stated that, while there are issues to be resolved with the delivery of social protection programmes in Bangladesh, if done properly, “3% of Bangladesh’s GDP commitment can accommodate both the Family Card and wider lifecycle-based expansion.”

Professor Andy McKay, University of Sussex, joined online to explore the importance of social mobility and its links to early childhood and human capital. Building on work presented at the DEEP International Conference in Arusha 2025, he discussed what social mobility means, how to measure it, and why it matters. His paper considered inter-generational mobility (the differences in socioeconomic status between generations) and intra-generational mobility (the differences that occur within an individual’s lifetime) and the relationships with key DEEP concepts, such as poverty dynamics and fragility.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Executive Chairman,PPRC, said, “Historically, education has been a driver of equality, but now education is driving inequality.” He pointed to aspirational deficits emerging among populations facing prolonged unemployment, which he thought was a troubling indicator of a lack of mobility.

Dr Dipankar Roy, Joint Secretary and Project Director (A.D), Statistics and Informatics Division, Ministry of Planning, Government of Bangladesh, was also in attendance as a panellist during the session on Data and Evidence, signaling institutional openness and a willingness to collaborate across research and government. He emphasised the importance of collaborative work between researchers and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, and making data more accessible for future research, as it is a public good.

During the final session of the event, Dr Mohammad Abu Yusuf, Secretary, Ministry of Social Welfare, Government of Bangladesh, spoke of the trade-off ministries face, which often requires the prioritisation between various social protection programmes. However, he reiterated that: “Investments prioritising our children are a forward-looking investment in our collective future. That is an investment worth making.”

The challenge of making such an investment count was taken up by Dr Imran Matin, Executive Director BIGD and DEEP Bangladesh Steering Committee Chair, who turned to the problem of fragmentation in Bangladesh’s social safety net. He argued that discussions about integrated delivery too often overlooked the role of local government empowerment and called for the fragmentation and decentralisation challenges to be addressed together. “We really need to do more implementation research and put the people back at the centre,” he said.

Other guests included Dr Kazi Iqbal, Research Director, BIDS; Professor Enamul Haque, Director General, BIDS; Dr Selim Raihan, Executive Director, SANEM; Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, CPD and DEEP Bangladesh Steering Committee member, and Dr Manzoor Ahmed, Chair, Bangladesh ECD Network (BEN).

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About BIGD: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, is a Bangladesh-based social science research and academic institute, dedicated to generating and sharing knowledge through education, research, and public and policy engagement in equitable partnerships with national and global actors.

About OPM: Oxford Policy Management is an international public policy consultancy working in partnership with leaders providing analytical and practical policy expertise through our global network to support low- and middle-income societies.

About Thrive: Thrive is a multi-country research programme that aims to support countries in turning what is known about positive early childhood development into practical, scalable programmes. Thrive’s five focus countries are Bangladesh, Ghana, Kiribati, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The programme is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) and is managed by Oxford Policy Management in collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

About DEEP: Data and Evidence to End Extreme Poverty (DEEP) has a mission to build evidence, insights and solutions that help end extreme poverty globally. DEEP aims to contribute to new global and national data and evidence that governments, decision makers, citizens and researchers can use to improve people’s lives and support the world’s poorest people in their efforts to escape extreme poverty. DEEP is a consortium of the Universities of Cornell, Copenhagen, and Southampton led by Oxford Policy Management, in partnership with the World Bank’s Development Data Group and funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. DEEP’s focus countries are Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania.