By Tao Xing

Liu Lili， 7， and Liu Tingting， 5， who hail from Qixingguan District in Bijie， Guizhou Province， have rarely seen smiles on the faces of their family members， many of whom have either physical or mental disabilities. This family environment had slowed down many aspects of the sisters development， including their language skills.

However， after a program launched by the China Development Research Foundation（CDRF） provided them with 120 in-home training sessions， the sisters are performing well in kindergarten.

Speaking at the Seventh International Conference on Poverty Reduction and Child Development in Beijing on July 24， Lu Mai， Vice Chairman of the CDRF， said the home visits， which spanned over two and a half years and cost around 7，000 yuan （$1，083） in total， were lifechanging for the two young girls.

James Heckman， a Nobel laureate in economics， told the conference via video link that early childhood development has a high rate of return on investment.

Heckmans research shows that intelligence and social skills develop at an early age， and investing in children early on brings economic benefits to a society as more successful and productive adults require less social welfare support. At the conference， he stressed that establishing the basic skills of rural children at their early ages would be essential to creating a foundation for Chinas future growth.

Not enough

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a press conference in Beijing on April 29 that by the end of 2020， a total of 11.2 million Chinese children had benefited from a government-led nutrition improvement program since its launch in 2012. As part of the program， free nutrition packages were provided to infants aged 6 to 24 months in all counties that faced extreme poverty across the country.

According to the center， rates of anemia and stunted growth among children aged between 6 and 24 months in the surveyed areas stood at 16.3 percent and 3.2 percent， respectively， by the end of 2020. These rates had decreased by 50.5 percent and 68.3 percent compared with the 2012 levels.

Similarly， according to statistics from the Ministry of Education in 2020， over 40.6 million rural students in the compulsory education system had benefited from a national nutrition improvement program since its inception in 2011. With government subsidy， the program supplements their diets with nutritious meals.

The nature of childhood poverty is multidimensional， according to Li Shi， a professor of economics at Zhejiang University. “The primary stage of poverty usually manifests itself as malnutrition， however， as a familys income increases， poverty usually causes issues relating to education and healthcare，” he said at the conference.