Colombia - The Medium-term Effects of Home-based Early Childhood Development Intervention Impact Evaluation 2010

The Medium Term Effects of Home-based Early Childhood Development Intervention Impact Evaluation (ECDIIE) covered 96 small towns in central Colombia, representing a large number of small communities across a relatively big geographical area. It exploited structures in place from the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Familias en Accion (FeA), which targets the poorest 20% of households in the country.There are currently three waves of data, a baseline, pre-intervention wave collected between February and June 2010, and a follow-up wave 18 months later between September and December 2011, at the end of the intervention period. The second wave of follow-up data collection occurred 2 years after the first follow-up data collection between September and December 2013.The beneficiaries of FeA periodically elect a female representative, called the Madre Lider (ML). We randomly selected three from each town (municipality), and then from the families represented by the ML we randomly selected 5 children aged 12 to 24 months to be eligible for the intervention. Within each municipality, eligible households were randomly allocated (at the municipality level) to each of the following treatment arms:1. Control 2. Stimulation + Supplementation3. Stimulation4. SupplementationThe stimulation intervention consisted of weekly visits to the homes of the target children, each visit lasting around one hour. The home visitors received a three week training programme in activities designed to stimulate children at different ages. They also received a weekly curriculum as a guide, and a set of locally produced materials (homemade toys from recycling material, picture books, puzzles, etc.).The supplementation arm consisted of providing daily sachets of multiple micronutrient powder to mothers, via the home visitors, to add to the target child's food. Sachets were designed to provide iron (12.5mg), zinc (5mg), Vitamin A (300 µg retinol equivalent), Vitamin C (30mg) and folic acid (160 µg) for the children targeted.

家庭式早期儿童发展干预中期影响评估项目（ECDIIE）覆盖哥伦比亚中部96个小镇，涵盖了广袤地理范围内的大量小型社区。项目依托哥伦比亚政府面向全国最贫困20%家庭的有条件现金转移支付计划（Conditional Cash Transfer Programme）‘家庭行动（Familias en Accion，FeA）’的既有框架开展。目前该项目共包含三轮数据采集：第一轮为2010年2月至6月收集的干预前基线数据；第二轮为干预周期结束后18个月，即2011年9月至12月开展的追踪调查；第三轮追踪数据采集于首轮追踪结束两年后，即2013年9月至12月。FeA的受助群体会定期推选女性代表，称为‘领袖母亲（Madre Lider，ML）’。研究人员从每个城镇（自治市）中随机选取3名领袖母亲，再从这些领袖母亲所代表的家庭内，随机筛选出5名年龄介于12至24个月的儿童，使其符合干预参与资格。在每个自治市内，符合条件的家庭将以自治市为单位，被随机分配至以下四组干预方案：1. 对照组；2. 发育刺激+营养补充组；3. 单纯发育刺激组；4. 单纯营养补充组。发育刺激干预方案包含每周一次的目标儿童家庭家访，每次时长约1小时。家访员需接受为期三周的专项培训，掌握适配不同年龄段儿童的发育刺激活动内容。此外，家访员还将获得每周更新的指导教案，以及一批本土自制教具，包括由回收材料制作的手工玩具、图画书、拼图等。营养补充组的干预内容为：通过家访员向儿童看护母亲每日提供复合微量营养素粉包，供其添加至目标儿童的膳食中。每份粉包旨在为目标儿童补充铁（12.5mg）、锌（5mg）、维生素A（300微克视黄醇当量）、维生素C（30mg）以及叶酸（160微克）。