Alliances and Partnerships Mobilized by

International Organizations

for Early Child Development

International Early Child Development WorkshopFundação Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal

Sao Paolo, Brazil November 9-10, 2010

Mary E. Young, MD, DrPHWorld Bank

Overview

• New International Partnerships in ECD

Two Examples:

– ALAS/Earth Institute and the World Bank

– AeioTu’s early childhood intervention in Colombia

• Why Alliance and Partnerships are essential

• Priority actions for the next ten years

ECD initiatives in Latin America

• ALAS (América Latina en Acción Solidaria)/Earth Institute/World Bank partnership

• AeioTU project in Colombia

AeioTU project

• The National Institute for Early Education

Research (NIEER) and Fundación Carulla

• Randomized trial to assess impact of early

intervention

• Investigate children’s social, health, cognitive,

emotional development at school entry and

follow up in primary and secondary school

ECD services is a complex undertaking

• Uniquely depends on alliances and partnerships

• Lessons learned:

– comprehensive packages– no single sector can do it alone – government involvement is essential and

complementary– measuring children’s outcomes is imperative

and yields much-needed data

Growth and Development Monitoring, Promotion, and Corrective P rograms .

First, ECD services must be wrapped into …

Comprehensive Packages

To start with:• Better nutrition,• Essential mother and

child care, and• Early sustained

sensory stimulation

Program Options:• Delivery of services to young

children• Education and support of

parents• Training and support of

caregivers/paraprofessionals• Sensitization of the public,

through the mass media, to the value of ECD

• Promoting and strengthening community-based activities

Second, no one level or single sector can do it alone ,

• Effective ECD programs are built from the “bottom up” – Vertically that involves:

• Parents and families, • neighborhoods and communities, • localities and provinces (or states), and • National bodies

– Horizontally working across sectors

Built Infrastructure from “Bottom Up ”

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Neighborhood clusterCity- wide system

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Aim to strengthen basic unit of society –the family

Parent associations NGOs /local networks

Neighborhood clusterNeighborhood cluster

Lobby local authorities to improve basic infrastructure-water, transport,

Depend on city support system to procure, distribute food, train caretaker and conduct public awareness campaigns

Third, government involvement is essential and complementary

• National Support: Get the Politics Right

Opportunity is key: seize it, create it, capitalize on it– Political will, timing, national commitment– Vigorous support from the top

• Build BROAD-BASED support

Local Support: Seven Keys to Success

• Ownership• Trust• Information• Clear “contracts” (relationships)• Incentives• Organizational capacity• National support ↔↔↔↔ local support

Early Human Development Programs

Information Ownership

Contracts Incentives

National Organizations

Families

Provide Legal Framework

Services Delivery

Priority actions for the next ten years…

Foster National and Global Understanding and

Awareness

– communicate the importance of healthy brain development in early childhood for the overall health, well-being, and competence of populations.

– promote a trans-disciplinary science of human development

Priority actions for the next ten years…

Benchmark societal progress by monitoring child

development outcomes

The Long Reach of ECD: EDI Vulnerability and Percent ‘Not Passing’ Grade 4 exam

# of EDI Vulnerabilities % Not passing (kindergarten) Grade 4 exam

Numeracy0 12.31 22.22-3 33.84-5 55.6

Reading0 17.81 33.92-3 43.14-5 68.3

Serving “Mothers and Others”

Alliances and partnerships, international organizations, civil societies and networks can work together to mobilize action on early human development.

Such strategies would serve “mothers and others ” and the evolution of “mutual understanding” to benefit all.