What Matters Most for Early Childhood Development : A Framework Paper
Around the world, inequalities in child development are stark. These inequalities often begin before birth and expand during a child's early years. A child's earliest years present a window of opportunity to address inequality and improve...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/20151897/matters-most-early-childhood-development-framework-paper http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20174 |
| Summary: | Around the world, inequalities in child
development are stark. These inequalities often begin before
birth and expand during a child's early years. A
child's earliest years present a window of opportunity
to address inequality and improve outcomes later in life.
The potential benefits from supporting early childhood
development (ECD) include: improved cognitive development,
better schooling outcomes, and increased productivity in
life. In response to the convincing evidence on the benefits
of investing in young children, and demand from client
countries, the World Bank is increasingly supporting ECD
around the world. To guide the implementation of the
Bank's education strategy 2020 and achieve the goal of
learning for all, the human development network has launched
systems approach for better education results (SABER) to
help countries systematically examine education policies.
Despite the manifold benefits of investing in ECD, and
government interest in promoting ECD, the policy environment
in many countries remains deeply inadequate to ensure that
all children have the opportunity to achieve full potential.
The SABER-ECD framework utilizes a comparable and
comprehensive approach to multisectoral data collection and
analysis. This information will assist client countries to
develop country-specific roadmaps and improve ECD policies
to ensure that all children have equal opportunity to
succeed in life. This paper provides the evidence base and a
present framework for analyzing ECD policies and programs
cross-nationally. The paper is organized as follows: section
one gives introduction. Section two presents a brief
overview of ECD and the rationale for investment in ECD.
Section three presents the SABER-ECD analytical framework
and describes the identified three key policy goals of
effective ECD systems. Section four reviews the literature
and provides the evidence base on what matters most for ECD
policies. Section five briefly details efforts to link
SABER-ECD with related World Bank initiatives and those led
by other institutions engaged in similar work. In section
six, the methodology that will be used to conduct a
SABER-ECD analysis in participating countries is described,
including the data collection process, tools, and deliverables. |
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