Study Overview
Building on long-term benefits of early intervention (Paper 2 of this Series) and increasing commitment to early childhood development (Paper 1 of this Series), scaled up support for the youngest children is essential to improving health, human capital, and wellbeing across the life course. In this third paper, new analyses show that the burden of poor development is higher than estimated, taking into account additional risk factors. National programmes are needed. Greater political prioritisation is core to scale-up, as are policies that afford families time and financial resources to provide nurturing care for young children. Effective and feasible programmes to support early child development are now available. In this paper, we highlight the role of the health and nutrition sector as an entry point to scaling up of programmes for early childhood development.
Study Results
Strong biological, psychosocial, and economic arguments exist for intervening as early as possible to promote, protect, and support children’s development, specifically during pregnancy and the first 2–3 years. An emphasis on the first years of life is articulated within a life course perspective that also requires quality provisions at older ages, especially during child day care and preschool, following on through schooling and into adolescence so as to capitalise on dynamic complementarities between investments made during successive lifecycle stages.
Intervention: Integrating and promoting child development