In China, CSD’s new research with Child Development Accounts aims to build families’ capacity for managing autism and its costs.
New pilot tests CDAs, supports for families of children with autism

In China, CSD’s new research with Child Development Accounts aims to build families’ capacity for managing autism and its costs.
In Singapore, an innovative project is training frontline staff and volunteers to give financial guidance to low-income families.
New estimates on the number of children around the globe who are building assets in CDAs. Over 15 million children have built assets in Child Development Accounts (CDAs), according to new estimates in a brief by Li Zou and Michael Sherraden with the Center for Social Development in the Brown School at Washington University. Zou […]
On August 26, 2021, the China Journal of Social Work announced the 2020 Best Article Award, honoring a study by an international team of scholars that includes Center for Social Development (CSD) affiliates Michael Sherraden, Li Zou, Suo Deng, Jin Huang, Margaret Sherraden, and Nancy Morrow-Howell, as well as Shanti Khinduka, former dean of the […]
Nearly 30 years after the publication of Michael Sherraden’s seminal Assets and the Poor, Child Development Account (CDA) policies and programs are emerging across the globe. Now, a new book edited by Jin Huang, Li Zou and Sherraden showcases the global context of those advancements.
In 2018, China celebrated its 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of social work in the country. Both that year and in 2019, Center for Social Development (CSD) Director Michael Sherraden provided keynote addresses for conferences at Peking University (PKU) in Beijing. Emphasizing the importance of longstanding partnerships between Washington University and China, Sherraden said they […]
Singapore initiated training in Financial Capability and Asset Building in 2017. It is kicking off its third phase: expanding to a nationwide scale.
As financial social work emerges in China, Michael Sherraden and Li Zou highlight its potential at two Chinese universities.
Child Development Accounts take center stage in a newly released special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development. The sweeping, seven-article issue shows the global context of the emerging asset-building policy. “Many countries are exploring new policy innovations that encourage asset building,” said Michael Sherraden, who co-edited the issue and co-authored […]
The Center for Social Development at Washington University’s Brown School is once again engaged in partnership for development of social work in mainland China. The focus is on financial capability.
The Azerbaijan Minister of Labor and Social Protection Sahil Babayev and Social Policy and Services Department Head Himalay Mamishov met with Center for Social Development Director Michael Sherraden, International Director Li Zou and Research Associate Aytakin Huseynli.
Center for Social Development Director Michael Sherraden and International Director Li Zou represented Washington University in St. Louis during a conference on “The 30th Anniversary of the Re-establishment of Social Work in China.”
A delegation from Washington University in St. Louis including Brown School Dean Mary McKay and Center for Social Development leaders participated the celebration of Washington University Day at Xi’an Jiaotong University on October 15.
The article is the first in Chinese to describe U.S. social workers’ growing view about the importance of policy changes and institutional arrangements for financial inclusion and capability, and to emphasize the unique role of social workers in achieving this goal.
Li Zou, the Center for Social Development’s international director, participated in two high-profile events this summer in Beijing.
The book “Asset-Building Policies and Innovation in Asia” – a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian social policy – is now available in paperback.
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, associate director of the Center for Social Development, spent part of December with Israel’s leading media providing insight on the country’s new law creating Child Development Accounts, the Savings for Every Child law.
The Center for Social Development hosted a seminar this month for social workers and others from South Korea, part of a larger training program focused on developing financial capability for Korean youth.
In 2010, researchers in the vast YouthSave Initiative started investigating whether low-income youth can build savings in the developing countries of Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Nepal. Now their findings are summarized in a newly released report.
YouthSave researchers gathered recently in Washington, D.C., to discuss what they learned over five years about how to provide scalable saving mechanisms to low-income youth—and what their findings could mean for youth development and financial inclusion.
Most young people in Sub-Saharan Africa are not saving money, and an article in the journal Global Social Welfare explains what helps or hurts them in their efforts.
A groundbreaking project examining the attitudes and practices of young people in developing economies toward saving money has led to new findings that confirm and challenge assumptions about youth saving at formal financial institutions.
The Singapore launch of the Next Age Institute is on Monday, February 23, at the National University of Singapore. The event will feature Singapore’s Senior Minister of State Amy Khor as the guest of honor.
Asian scholars, practitioners and policymakers share lessons about asset-building policies in Asia and chart the future in the new book “Asset-Building Policies and Innovations in Asia.”
The Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis recognizes that asset-building policies in Asia offer important lessons in lifelong wealth and retirement security. International interest in these policies, particularly regarding aging populations, has prompted a book published in Chinese and one forthcoming in English.
Low-income youth in developing countries will save their money in a formal account when given the right opportunity.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and long-time partner Peking University in Beijing have begun collaborating on a new endeavor: Savings accounts for children with disabilities in China.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis partnered with Peking University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University to host a conference on strategies and innovations for asset building. This conference, held at Peking University in mid-November, reviewed research on asset building initiatives, a growing interest throughout Asia.
The Conference on Lifelong Asset Building: Strategies and Innovations in Asia, taking place this weekend in Beijing, will harness the experiences and brainpower of leading scholars, policy makers, practitioners, corporate leaders and funders from around the world.
Representatives from the Center for Social Development at Washington University recently traveled halfway around the world to meet with colleagues from the YouthSave Consortium, and had the unique opportunity to talk with Nepalese youth and learn more about their savings experience.
Do Ghanaian youth have money? How do they get it? What do they do with it? These are questions we are beginning to answer in YouthSave using data from a baseline survey of over 6,000 in-school youth.
The Center for Social Development at Washington University’s Brown School will host a Symposium on International Research and Innovation on April 17, 2012, to examine the process and experiences of building international research partnerships and highlight innovations in economic empowerment and financial inclusion in international settings.
Available evidence suggests that youth savings has the potential to improve the well-being of low-income and vulnerable youth, but globally, the number of youth savings programs is relatively small.
The MasterCard Foundation calls the five-year YouthSave project,“a landmark, global research initiative that will test how to sustainably deliver savings services to low-income youth in the developing world.”
“While a common tendency is to focus on the burdens an aging population will place on a country’s economic and social welfare, an aging society represents an opportunity, not just a crisis,” says Nancy Morrow-Howell, Ph.D., productive aging expert and professor at the Brown School at Washington University.
In August 2009, international gerontology scholars gathered in China to address the challenge of initiating research and policy innovations that will support older adults in being actively engaged and harness their contributions for the betterment of families, communities, and society.