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This paper studies the association between caregiver--child interactions and early childhood development in literacy and numeracy in West and Central Africa. Data comes from Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) conducted in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Togo between 2017 and 2020. A multilevel logistic regression is used to estimate the likelihood of being developmentally on track for 35,752 children aged 3-4 years. The results indicate that cognitively stimulating interactions with caregivers such as reading and telling stories are correlated with a higher likelihood of being developmentally on track. Interactions with mothers are associated with significantly higher odds of being developmentally on track but not interactions with fathers.

The growing population of young people in the world today makes them an indispensable factor in international, regional, national and local development today. The UN World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) and the African Union's African Youth Charter all attest to the concern development stakeholders pay to youth development. This paper analysis youth policy within 9 member states of the Central African Sub region, showcasing the vital, yet significant role that polities are creating in fostering an enabling environment for youth participation. It explores the tenets of youth policy within this sub region by depicting how the participation of youths in societal activities and decision making instances should be an asset and a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth and social development. It also expresses abysmal concern about the magnitude of youth unemployment and underemployment throughout in Africa and its profound implications for the future of our societies, particularly those residing in the Central African sub region. The study is descriptive and applies a qualitative approach based on expert interviews and desk research. It employs the explanatory case study approach, and the combined anthropological research techniques through the use of key informant interview, written records and non-participant observations. The authors also conducted research in major databases like google scholar, PUB Med with the search phrase being youth policies, participation and youth governance. The 2016 Youth Development Index Report indicates that all 9 Central African countries have a low index, and 4 of the 9 countries are ranked in the bottom 10 of the classification. The findings also reveal that conflicts, underdevelopment and lack of political willingness are customarily accountable for the lagging of this Sub region in youth policy matters. The paper also proposes indicators to monitor and evaluate Youth Policies in the Central African Sub region, using the model proposed by Tanya BASARAB, develop initiatives to promote youth participation, and encourage networking among youth organizations and institutions with the Central African Sub region.

In this paper we present a cross-cultural study of toddler interactions with other juveniles (1-15 years of age) in two small-scale societies, the Bofi farmers and foragers of Central Africa. This paper provides a unique perspective because child development studies have predominantly been conducted in Western industrialized settings. Most studies of juvenile interactions among non-Western small-scale cultures have focused either on sibling caretaking or the functional value of juvenile play-groups, while little attention has been given to various types of juvenile interactions. In this study we utilized naturalistic observations of 21 Bofi farmer and 22 Bofi forager toddlers to examine the role of cultural group and age in how toddlers interact with other juveniles, specifically with respect to caretaking, social, and conflict interactions. Toddler-juvenile caretaking interactions were quite similar among the Bofi foragers and farmers despite differing parental ethno-theories about juvenile caretaking, and age effects were apparent only among the farmers. Toddler-juvenile social interactions were predicted by both age and cultural group: Toddlers engaged socially with juveniles more as they grew older in both groups, but farmer toddlers interacted with juveniles more than did forager toddlers overall. Bofi farmer and forager toddler conflicts appeared quite infrequent by Western standards, although cultural group differences were apparent: Farmer toddler engaged in more conflict with juveniles than forager toddlers did. Lastly, the topics of conflicts varied according to cultural group, but not age: Farmer toddler conflicts were more often related to disagreements over objects and responses to physical aggression than were forager toddler conflicts.