Helping young children achieve their developmental potential
Our goal is to promote and implement effective policies and programs that strengthen early childhood development by providing high quality care and education to children ages 0 to 5 and their families, particularly for the most vulnerable.
By increasing investments that expand coverage while recognizing children’s diversity, measure ECD outcomes and service quality, and provide adequate workforce training.
Services offered at centers (daycares for children under age 3 or preschools for 4- to 5-year-olds); and programs to promote families’ investments in their children’s human capital during the first 5 years of their life (cash transfer programs and parent support programs).
By ensuring evidence-based decision-making, adequate governance, institutional capacity building, and sustainable funding that allows coordinated actions by different sectors.
The ECD Fund was created to address the challenge of expanding childhood development programs while ensuring quality. Learn more about this alliance to finance, design, implement, and evaluate approaches to improve the lives of children under 5 years of age in the region.
The Community of Practice strengthens regional ECD networks by bridging scientific knowledge and early childhood public policy and sharing knowledge and best practices.
To learn more about various early childhood actors in the region, visit the Knowledge Hub on Early Childhood Development, a page with more than 2000 resources and a map presenting innovative projects in the region.
Videos available in their original language
During the IDB Group’s Knowledge Week on October 23–27, academics, regional and international experts, and IDB specialists met to share experiences on topics that are critical to the planet’s future.
Certain mental health problems can emerge during early childhood and have serious, lifelong consequences for learning, social skills, and physical health. Children can develop disorders like anxiety, attention deficit disorder, impulse-control disorder, behavioral problems, depression, post-traumatic stress, and neurodevelopment disabilities, like autism, among others.
How do we know if childcare centers, preschools and home visits are effectively preparing children for school? How do we know if these services actually promote child development in young children? The question of how to measure access to quality services has been present in academia and policy for decades. So, where do we stand today and how should we move forward?