This report explores how ‘core capacities’ – or cornerstones of more familiar concepts, such as life skills and competences – develop over the early part of the life course, and how they contribute to children’s personal well-being and development.

The project builds on the existing evidence base to understand better how children’s personal attributes (age and gender), and the world around the child, can promote the use of core capacities for the benefit of child well-being and to improve policies and practices for child development.

The purpose of the work is to assess how these core capacities can improve the lives of children, and to understand the ways in which education systems and broader social systems can protect and promote these capacities.

The project aims to use these findings to contribute practical steps to improve the living and learning conditions for children globally – not just in school or at home, but in their daily lives, and as they grow into adulthood.

Available in English.