Early Childhood Matters 2017

This edition of the 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.

Table of contents
Issue details

Table of contents

Editorial

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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.

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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.

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

Lucy Bassett and Ana Nieto

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

Abbie Raikes and Ivelina Borisova

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 and Vidya Putcha

The Power of Nutrition: innovative financing for the next generation

Martin Short and Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi

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 and Khosneara Khondker

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

Nathaniel Foote and Giorgio Tamburlini

Promoting positive parenting practices in Niger through a cash transfer programme

Oumar Barry, Ali Mory Maïdoka and Patrick Premand

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.

Issue details

The views expressed in Early Childhood Matters are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Van Leer Foundation. Work featured is not necessarily funded by the Van Leer Foundation.

Reproduction of articles by photocopying or electronic means for non-commercial purposes is permitted. However, it is requested that the author, Early Childhood Matters and Van Leer Foundation are cited as the source of the information.

Permission must be obtained to use photos.

ISSN 1387-9553

Cover: Prisca (in the middle) with her dad and her cousin, looking at a book under a cacao tree. Gohou-Zagnan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Photo: Thibaut Monnier (Ayoukit)/Van Leer Foundation

This 2017 issue of Early Childhood Matters is no. 126 in the series. Also published in Spanish: Espacio para la Infancia (ISSN 1566-6476)

Colophon

Guest editor

Joan Lombardi

Current-Principal Advisor and Adjunct Professor, Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Guest Editor from 2015-2019, Early Childhood Matters

Series editor

Teresa Moreno

Consultant editor

Andrew Wright

Text editing

Margaret Mellor

Design

Roquefort Ontwerpers