At a time when inequalities in school achievement, workforce skills, and lifelong health status compromise a nation’s competitiveness in a global economy, the need for new ideas to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty around the world is critical. Science tells us that the foundations for successful adulthood are established early in life. The substantial gap between what we know about the roots of growing disparities in health, learning, and behavior and what we are doing to promote the well-being of vulnerable children internationally provides a compelling agenda for strengthening policies and investments that focus on the earliest years of life.
Over the past decade, the world’s policymakers have increased their attention to early childhood health and development, which opens new prospects for advancing a comprehensive early childhood agenda. Meanwhile, a growing, interdisciplinary body of scientific research is already starting to transform the health and well-being of children in the highest-income countries and offers promising opportunity for other nations. Much work needs to be done, however, to successfully raise the commitment to an integrated approach to child development that would enable such breakthroughs to cross economic and national borders. Read more about the current context >>
Global Children’s Initiative
The Global Children’s Initiative is the primary practical manifestation of the Center’s global child development agenda. The initiative draws not only on the expertise of individuals whose specialties span the biological and social sciences but also on the wisdom and experience of those who are addressing the needs of vulnerable children “on the ground.” Read more >>
Zambian Early Childhood Development Project
While a large number of studies have investigated the impact of early childhood experiences on children’s developmental, health, and educational outcomes in developed countries, relatively little evidence is available on early childhood development in sub-Saharan Africa. To address this knowledge gap, the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University launched the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) in 2009, a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia.
Faculty Spotlight
Günther Fink
As a health economist, Günther Fink had never focused on early childhood development issues. That was until he was in the midst of studying whether a major, ongoing anti-malaria initiative in Zambia could—beyond the obvious effects on health—benefit the long-term development of the impoverished country. Fink wondered, too, if the campaign could have an effect on child development. It turned out that if he wanted a comprehensive, culturally appropriate measure of child development, he’d have to build a new one—a task easier said than done.
Applying the Science of Early Childhood in Brazil
As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center is launching its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. In collaboration with local experts, the Center aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil.
Executive Leadership Program
The mood was buoyant and collegial, but the stakes were high—planning a better future for children in a country experiencing rapid economic growth and wide societal disparities. This group of nearly 50 Brazilian politicians, policymakers, public managers and civil-society leaders had come together for the first time just five days earlier. What united them—both physically and philosophically—was an executive leadership course on early childhood development (ECD), which was hosted by the Center on the Developing Child.
Un Buen Comienzo
Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), "A Good Start," is a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve the quality of early childhood education through teacher professional development. UBC, which has received some funding from the Center, is an example of the kind of integrated child development work that is central to the Center's mission.
