Kazakhstan has launched a national Child Development Account (CDA) policy informed by research from the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The development opens the door on a policy structure for channeling natural-resource wealth to invest in children and build human capital.
Through the policy, each child in Kazakhstan receives an asset-building account, and 50% of the dividends from the National Fund will be transferred yearly into the new National Fund for Children for distribution to the CDAs of individual beneficiaries.
“The launch of Kazakhstan’s CDA policy is an important achievement,” said Michael Sherraden, the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at WashU and founding director of the CSD. “The nation is leveraging natural resources to create opportunities for every child and building a stronger economy in the long run.”
“The Kazakhstan CDA policy may serve as a model for other nations, showing how natural-resource revenue can benefit the whole population,” Sherraden said. “Three billion people live in low- to middle-income countries with natural-resource wealth, yet most of this wealth is currently not developing the population. CDAs could become a more positive strategy.”
Read more on the CSD website.
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