Current estimates indicate that more than 200 million children under age five in developing countries are at risk of not developing to their full potential. Between 2009 and 2050, the world will have to support an additional 2 to 2.5 billion people—and more than 95% of this population increase will be in emerging or developing economies. It is critical that effective human development strategies be scaled up and sustained both to meet current development challenges and to provide a mechanism through which the growing global population can avoid falling into a cycle of inherited poverty.

Early Child Development is that mechanism. 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.

ECD is the most effective development tool the world has for improving the health and education of young children, promoting increased educational attainment and reducing poverty in the developing world. Given all that is known about the positive effects of ECD in promoting the physical and mental development of children, preparing them for educational success and fighting poverty, why have ECD programs not been effectively scaled up and sustained throughout the developing world? Why is ECD not a top priority of the global development community?

The Early Child Development Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development conducts research that aims to better understand how to successfully scale up and sustain effective ECD programs and policies throughout the developing world and works to promote the improvement of ECD programs and policies in developing countries.

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: Cuba, South Africa, Macedonia, Madagascar, Philippines, Romania, Syria, Chile and India. The Early Child Development Initiative hosted its First Annual Conference in May 2009 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC to present the first five of these case studies.

The Initiative has also held thematic events throughout the year, including two events on private sector financing for ECD: the first event was held in The Hague, in April 2008 and the second in Washington, DC in December 2008. In March 2009, the initiative partnered with Doctor’s Without Borders and Global Action for Children to co-host a roundtable discussion on early child nutrition in the developing world.

The Early Child Development Initiative has participated in several international ECD invents, including the annual ISSA Conference in October 2008 in Budapest, Hungary and the World Forum for Early Care and Education conference in June 2009 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Additional events are planned for fall 2009 to address ECD in HIV/AIDS contexts, ECD prioritization in U.S. Foreign Aid, and the scale up of ECD programming in South Africa.