Professor Abu Shonchoy and his research team have been selected as winners of the 2026 Khalifa International Award for Early Learning in the Research and Studies category. Prof. Shonchoy served as the team leader for this project.
The Khalifa International Award for Early Learning is a globally recognized award established in the United Arab Emirates to promote excellence and innovation in early childhood education research, policy, and practice. It highlights rigorous, high-impact work that contributes to improving early learning outcomes worldwide.
Prof. Shonchoy's winning study, titled Early Childhood Human Capital Formation at Scale, examines how early childhood development interventions can be delivered at scale by leveraging existing public service infrastructure. Using a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh, we evaluate the integration of early stimulation and parenting support into the government's national nutrition program. The findings show meaningful improvements in children's cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development, alongside gains in health outcomes and parental engagement, demonstrating a scalable and cost-effective model for policy implementation in low-resource settings.
The award ceremony will take place on May 13, 2026, in Abu Dhabi.
This is an outstanding achievement for Prof. Shonchoy and a wonderful recognition of the high-impact research being conducted in the Economics Department.
The full paper is published in the Journal of Public Economics and can be accessed here .
For a more accessible summary aimed at a broader audience, a VoxDev article based on this research is available here .
The Khalifa International Award for Early Learning is a globally recognized award established in the United Arab Emirates to promote excellence and innovation in early childhood education research, policy, and practice. It highlights rigorous, high-impact work that contributes to improving early learning outcomes worldwide.
Prof. Shonchoy's winning study, titled Early Childhood Human Capital Formation at Scale, examines how early childhood development interventions can be delivered at scale by leveraging existing public service infrastructure. Using a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh, we evaluate the integration of early stimulation and parenting support into the government's national nutrition program. The findings show meaningful improvements in children's cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development, alongside gains in health outcomes and parental engagement, demonstrating a scalable and cost-effective model for policy implementation in low-resource settings.
The award ceremony will take place on May 13, 2026, in Abu Dhabi.
This is an outstanding achievement for Prof. Shonchoy and a wonderful recognition of the high-impact research being conducted in the Economics Department.
The full paper is published in the Journal of Public Economics and can be accessed here .
For a more accessible summary aimed at a broader audience, a VoxDev article based on this research is available here .