This tab is intended to help program managers in Latin America and the Caribbean get started by introducing definitions, possible strategies, and some principles to guide programming in early childhood care and development (ECCD). To get started, a program manager should be able to carry out the following:

• Explain and discuss what is meant by early childhood, by child care, and by development and to identify the implications of the definitions for a program.
• Explain to a skeptical colleague why investment in early childhood care and development is worthwhile.
• Identify possible complementary approaches to early childhood care and development, in order to see how suggestions fit into the larger picture and to make suggestions.
• Present a set of guidelines and principles to use as a basis for developing an ECCD project or component, together with their program implications.
• Indicate which organizations to check with to find out what ECCD activities they are supporting in the country where the program is to be implemented.
• Know where to turn to develop a preliminary list of people and organizations to contact in the country or for recommendations on consultants.
• Identify IDB projects in the country with which an ECCD project should be coordinated or to which it should be attached.
• Consult sources available in the IDB or through the Internet or general sources (tab 8), to get a broad picture of the social, economic, and political conditions affecting early child care and development in the country, as well as the state of children and of ECCD services.

• Gather reference materials that may need to be consulted during project identification and development.