ECD investment, an economic sense
When societies invest in early childhood development (ECD), it is one of the best investments a country can make to boost economic growth, promote peaceful and sustainable societies, and eliminate extreme poverty and inequality, experts say. A Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development was launched on Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO), […]
When societies invest in early childhood development (ECD), it is one of the best investments a country can make to boost economic growth, promote peaceful and sustainable societies, and eliminate extreme poverty and inequality, experts say.
A Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development was launched on Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the World Bank, in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, the Early Childhood Development Action Network.
The launch was part of the ongoing 71st World Health Assembly, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The framework builds on the foundation of universal health coverage with primary care at its core, an essential for all sustainable growth and development.
It provides an evidence-based roadmap for action and outlines how policies and services support parents, families, other caregivers and communities in providing nurturing care for young children.
It also calls for effective national programmes that are driven by strong and sustained political commitment and a determination to reduce inequity, poverty and social injustice, drawing on best practices from across high-, middle- and low-income countries.
At the event which had a global representation, experts including WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; former President of Chili and PMNCH Board Chair, Dr. Michelle Bachelet; UNICEF Deputy Programme Director, Vidhya Ganesh and Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank Group, Annette Dixon among others.
The WHO’s boss said the Organisation’s General Program of Work which was approved by delegates on earlier on Wednesday states that investment for early childhood development are essential for good health and wellbeing across the life course.
Emphasising WHO’s commitment to support member states in implement the framework, Dr Tedros, said, the organization is committed to work with governments and partners, to identify physical, affordable implementation models that are tailored to local contexts and to demonstrate that impact will follow.
Dr. Ghebreyesus who was pleased that the WHO has been able to provide the platform for so many partners to come together around nurturing care for early childhood, said it is more urgent than ever for the world to work together in a unified way towards these common goals and therefore pleased that.
“Only through our joint efforts will we be able to maintain momentum and create a global movement. I salute your efforts and I assure you of the WHO’s unwavering support for every woman, every child,” he said.
Bachelet, a paediatrician, described nurturing care as how conditions are created to promote health, nutrition and security, safety, responsive care giving and opportunities for early childhood.
Chili has made progress in this regard and Bachelet spoke about this strides from a personal perspective.
She said, “As a student, I could take my kids to the nursery and kindergarten. I started with the concept of early childhood and education. So when I came into office, I developed a big programme on nurseries and kindergartens particularly for poor people who mothers went to work or parents went to work.
“Their children were safely in good hands. But then we started realizing that health was very important and all the social determinants of health. So we started developing a plan called ‘Chile grows with you.’
Former Chilean President, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, who shared her experience in the implementation of the early childhood policy and to what extent it is aligned to the nurturing care framework said, “Being a pediatrician, sometimes you get to see poor families but you can see the difference between a child who is from a poor family but was given love to the best they could, from one who is not loved or cared for enough. If you see for example people, children living with disabilities, with special needs like a child with down syndrome. It is the same when you have a family with care for him.”
Bachelet commending efforts of PMNCH and its partners for bringing the framework to fruition, said “Over 1000 individuals from 111 countries have contributed to crafting the framework that recognizes that nurturing care not only promotes physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, it also protects young children from the worst effects of adversity. It produces lifelong and intergenerational benefits for health, productivity and social cohesion.”
The framework comes at a time when countries are boosting their efforts to meet their Sustainable Development Goals, which includes several targets related to early childhood development.
“We know that developing an individual’s full potential and a country’s human capital is highly dependent on giving children the best possible start through quality early childhood development, including early nutrition and stimulation,” Dixon said.
Speaking on what this means for a child’s overall development, Ganesh, said, “A child’s early environment and experiences have a direct and long-term impact on the way the brain is structured – influencing their present and future cognitive, emotional and social development, and their overall health and wellbeing,”
She added that, “When we invest in the earliest years of children’s lives – through health, social and education programmes that help parents provide their young with nurturing care – we all benefit.”
On lessons learned from implementing early childhood development friendly policies, there was a general consensus that the child is able to develop much more potentials than the one who is not so cared for.
In advocacy that the process should be all inclusive, the experts stressed the importance of caregivers whether parents, grandparents or guardians in schools or a nurseries and also the whole society taking responsibility for to ensure the ECD drive succeeds.