Early Childhood Matters 2017

This edition of the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s journal showcases advances in early childhood development, bringing new ideas from around the world and exploring the challenges of scaling up.

Guest-edited by international early childhood expert Joan Lombardi, Early Childhood Matters 2017 has keynote articles from two global leaders for young children: Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. A further 17 articles report on subjects ranging from neuroscience to financing to quality standards, with contributions from diverse countries including Niger, Australia, Romania and Bangladesh.

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Editorial

Moving towards scale: advancing early childhood development 2017

Joan Lombardi

Leadership

Bold leadership – or as we see it, the ability to mobilise people to solve important problems collectively – is crucial to achieving results for young children. In this section, leaders from governments, international organisations and funders around the world talk about why they have chosen to put babies, toddlers and the people who care for them high on their agenda.

The best investment societies can make

Jim Yong Kim

‘Chile Crece Contigo’: 10 years on

Michelle Bachelet Jeria

Scaling

There are many pathways to scale – taking a successful small programme, and making it work for hundreds of thousands of children – but the challenges are complex. In this section, practitioners and policymakers explore issues such as coordinating across different parts of government, financing, recruiting and training large numbers of workers, testing and learning, and putting systems in place that deliver consistent, cost-effective quality.

The Early Childhood Development Action Network: a global network to strengthen support for young children

Lucy Bassett et al.

Building national early childhood data systems: laying the groundwork for equitable, quality early childhood services

Abbie Raikes et al.

The international Guide for Monitoring Child Development: enabling individualised interventions

Ilgi Öztürk Ertem

Better policies for improved financing of services for young children

Arjun Upadhyay et al.

The Power of Nutrition: innovative financing for the next generation

Martin Short et al.

Quality standards for early childhood services: examples from South and South East Asia

Sandipan Paul

Promoting high-quality childcare at scale in Latin America

M. Caridad Araujo

From small to scale: the expansion of pre-primary in Bangladesh

Zannatun Zahar et al.

Accelerating the effective scaling of Kangaroo Mother Care and related interventions: lessons from 20 years of experience

Nathaniel Foote et al.

Promoting positive parenting practices in Niger through a cash transfer programme

Oumar Barry et al.

Innovations

Before good practices can be taken to scale, we first need good ideas. In this section, we focus on innovations – new or emerging programmes, policies or services which have the potential to meet the needs of young children and their caregivers in a wider range of contexts.

Nurturing the next generation of early childhood leaders

Rachel Machefsky

Mothers of Rotterdam: a new medical and social support programme for vulnerable pregnant women

Johanna P. de Graaf et al.

The Kids in Communities Study: what is it about where you live that makes a difference to children’s development?

Sharon Goldfeld et al.

Public–private partnership for early childhood: a chance to improve Romania’s competitiveness

Carmen Lica

Early learning and nurturing care for children displaced by conflict and persecution

Nada Elattar et al.

The Global Journalism Institute on Early Childhood and the Developing Brain

Karen Brown

Big surprises from little brains

Patricia K. Kuhl

Issue Colophon

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