Searching for ways to increase resources is only part of the solution to the problem of providing the inputs necessary for an adequate ECCD system. Those seeking to expand ECCD programs also need to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining adequate quality. There are several promising ways to lower costs:

• Increase efficiency by cutting waste and improving management.
• Combine the resources of existing sectoral programs into a multifaceted program, to take advantage of the synergism among health, nutrition, education, and other program components.

• Coordinate the disparate efforts of different sectors aimed at the young child, such as health education and maternal and child health care.
• Change the design, organization, or technology of a program. This may mean:

Changing the components included in the program, by reducing the number of components in order to cut costs or combining components with those in other programs.

Taking advantage of economies of scale, such as by reducing the ratios of caregivers to children and of supervisors to staff or through bulk buying.

Reducing the age group to be covered.

Substituting on-the-job training for formal educational requirements for personnel.

Identifying dormant resources, such as buildings used only part time, elderly people with time on their hands who want something meaningful to do, and students' time that is now being employed in tasks with little social value.

• Provide incentives to the private sector, to nonprofit institutions operating in the social sector, and to communities to organize and run ECCD programs for children living in conditions that put them at risk.