Early Child Development (ECD) refers to a combination of programs and policies aimed at improving the nutrition, health, cognitive and psycho-social development, education and in some situations, social protection, of young children.

Young children are particularly vulnerable to adversities during the first five years of life. Impoverished environments take a far greater toll on young children, for the effects are lifelong and costly to remediate. Children born into poverty are less likely to receive adequate cognitive stimulation, nurturing or nutrition and are more likely to suffer from chronic health problems, perform poorly in school and drop out of school at high rates. As future adult participants in the labor market, they are able to perform only unskilled jobs and earn the lowest wages. When they have children, the cycle of inherited poverty is repeated. Children who participate in ECD programs are healthier, attain higher rates of education, are less likely to become involved in crime, and have greater employment opportunities in later life. ECD is a mechanism by which the cycle of inherited poverty can be broken.

Early childhood is the most critical and most vulnerable time in any individual’s development. A country’s economic standing in the world today depends on having educated and skilled populations that can compete globally. Leading economists and development organizations are urging countries and the international community to focus on children as the first step in human capital formation. By improving Early Child Development, a country can assure successful human capital formation and accelerate its economic competitiveness for the future.

The Early Child Development Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development aims to better understand how to successfully scale-up and sustain effective ECD programs and policies in the developing world.

The research program of the Initiative includes a series of ongoing country case studies, focused on the scale-up and sustainability of a specific program, policy or ECD framework within each country. Current country case studies include: South Africa, Madagascar, Syria, Macedonia, Romania, Cuba, India and the Philippines.

The Initiative held its launch event, a research planning seminar, in December 2007 at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and concluded its second event in April 2008, on private sector financing for ECD (in partnership with the Committee for Economic Development) in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Upcoming events include additional private sector financing for ECD events to be held (in partnership with the Committee for Economic Development) in Washington D.C. in December 2008 and Cape Town, South Africa in April 2009, and the Initiative’s first annual conference, to be held in Washington D.C. in February 2009.