Publication: What Matters Most for Early Childhood Development : A Framework Paper
Loading...
Published
2013-01
ISSN
Date
2014-09-16
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Around the world, inequalities in child development are stark. These inequalities often begin before birth and expand during a child's early years. A child's earliest years present a window of opportunity to address inequality and improve outcomes later in life. The potential benefits from supporting early childhood development (ECD) include: improved cognitive development, better schooling outcomes, and increased productivity in life. In response to the convincing evidence on the benefits of investing in young children, and demand from client countries, the World Bank is increasingly supporting ECD around the world. To guide the implementation of the Bank's education strategy 2020 and achieve the goal of learning for all, the human development network has launched systems approach for better education results (SABER) to help countries systematically examine education policies. Despite the manifold benefits of investing in ECD, and government interest in promoting ECD, the policy environment in many countries remains deeply inadequate to ensure that all children have the opportunity to achieve full potential. The SABER-ECD framework utilizes a comparable and comprehensive approach to multisectoral data collection and analysis. This information will assist client countries to develop country-specific roadmaps and improve ECD policies to ensure that all children have equal opportunity to succeed in life. This paper provides the evidence base and a present framework for analyzing ECD policies and programs cross-nationally. The paper is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two presents a brief overview of ECD and the rationale for investment in ECD. Section three presents the SABER-ECD analytical framework and describes the identified three key policy goals of effective ECD systems. Section four reviews the literature and provides the evidence base on what matters most for ECD policies. Section five briefly details efforts to link SABER-ECD with related World Bank initiatives and those led by other institutions engaged in similar work. In section six, the methodology that will be used to conduct a SABER-ECD analysis in participating countries is described, including the data collection process, tools, and deliverables.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Neuman, Michelle J.; Devercelli, Amanda E.. 2013. What Matters Most for Early Childhood Development : A Framework Paper. Systems Approach for Better Education
Results (SABER) working paper series;no. 5. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20174 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Uganda : Early Childhood Development(Washington, DC, 2012-01)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies that affect young children in Uganda and recommendations to move forward. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework1 and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition and social and child protection policies and interventions in Uganda, along with regional and international comparisons. Uganda's population is estimated at 35.8 million people, of which almost half (49.9 percent) is below 14 years of age. SABER-ECD collects, analyzes and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. In each participating country, extensive multi-sectoral information is collected on ECD policies and programs through a desk review of available government documents, data and literature, and interviews with a range of ECD stakeholders, including government officials, service providers, civil society, development partners and scholars. The SABER-ECD framework presents a holistic and integrated assessment of how the overall policy environment in a country affects young children's development. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely and monitoring and assuring quality. Improving ECD requires an integrated approach to address all three goals.Publication Kyrgyz Republic : Early Childhood Development(Washington, DC, 2013)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in the Kyrgyz Republic. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework and1 with financial and technical support from United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The Kyrgyz Republic has a population of 5.5 million inhabitants, of which 65 percent reside in rural locations. Nearly 36.8 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and 8.6 percent of the eligible workforce is unemployed. SABE-ECD collects, analyzes and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. In each participating country, extensive multi-sectoral information is collected on ECD policies and programs through a desk review of available government documents, data and literature, and interviews with a range of ECD stakeholders, including government officials, service providers, civil society, development partners and scholars. The SABER-ECD framework presents a holistic and integrated assessment of how the overall policy environment in a country affects young children's development. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely and monitoring and assuring quality.Publication Federal Republic of Nigeria Early Childhood Development : SABER Country Report 2013(Washington, DC, 2013)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies that affect young children in Nigeria and recommendations to move forward. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the SABER-ECD framework and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition and social and child protection policies and interventions in Nigeria, along with regional and international comparisons. Data on ECD policies and programs were collected through the SABER-ECD exercise in Bauchi, Ekiti, Kwara, and Oyo states. The SABER-ECD initiative is designed to enable ECD policy makers and development partners to identify opportunities for further development of effective ECD systems. This Country Report presents a framework to compare Nigeria s ECD system with other countries in goals and corresponding nine policy levers are examined in detail and some policy options are identified to strengthen ECD services that are offered. Table 15 summarizes the key policy options identified to inform policy dialogue and improve the provision of essential ECD services in Nigeria to ensure that all young children have a strong start in life and the opportunity to reach their full potential.Publication Liberia Early Childhood Development : SABER Country Report 2012(Washington, DC, 2012)This report presents an analysis of the early childhood development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in the Republic of Liberia. It is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the systems approach for better education results (SABER)-ECD framework and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition, and social and child protection policies and interventions in Liberia, along with some regional and international comparisons. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely, and monitoring and assuring quality.Publication Tajikistan : Early Childhood Development(Washington, DC, 2013)This report presents an analysis of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in Tajikistan. This report is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-ECD framework. Tajikistan has a population of 7.76 million people, of which 35 percent are below the age of 15. Unlike some countries in the region, Tajikistan has a positive population growth rate. SABER-ECD collects, analyzes and disseminates comprehensive information on ECD policies around the world. In each participating country, extensive multi- sectoral information is collected on ECD policies and programs through a desk review of available government documents, data and literature, and interviews with a range of ECD stakeholders, including government officials, service providers, civil society, development partners and scholars. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely and monitoring and assuring quality. Improving ECD requires an integrated approach to address all three goals. Tajikistan has taken steps to develop and adopt national laws and regulations that promote appropriate dietary consumption by pregnant women and young children.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Poverty Mapping in the Age of Machine Learning(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-04)Recent years have witnessed considerable methodological advances in poverty mapping, much of which has focused on the application of modern machine-learning approaches to remotely sensed data. Poverty maps produced with these methods generally share a common validation procedure, which assesses model performance by comparing subnational machine-learning-based poverty estimates with survey-based, direct estimates. Although unbiased, survey-based estimates at a granular level can be imprecise measures of true poverty rates, meaning that it is unclear whether the validation procedures used in machine-learning approaches are informative of actual model performance. This paper examines the credibility of existing approaches to model validation by constructing a pseudo-census from the Mexican Intercensal Survey of 2015, which is used to conduct several design-based simulation experiments. The findings show that the validation procedure often used for machine-learning approaches can be misleading in terms of model assessment since it yields incorrect information for choosing what may be the best set of estimates across different methods and scenarios. Using alternative validation methods, the paper shows that machine-learning-based estimates can rival traditional, more data intensive poverty mapping approaches. Further, the closest approximation to existing machine-learning approaches, using publicly available geo-referenced data, performs poorly when evaluated against “true” poverty rates and fails to outperform traditional poverty mapping methods in targeting simulations.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication The Government Analytics Handbook(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-28)The Government Analytics Handbook presents frontier evidence and practitioner insights on how to leverage data to strengthen public administration. Covering a range of microdata sources—such as administrative data and public servant surveys—as well as tools and resources for undertaking the analytics, it transforms the ability of governments to take a data-informed approach to diagnose and improve how public organizations work. The "Handbook" is a must-have for practitioners, policy makers, academics, and government agencies. It is available as a single volume in print or digital formats, and as chapters for modular use. Additional tools, data and background information are available at worldbank.org/governmentanalytics. “Governments have long been assessed using aggregate governance indicators, giving us little insight into their diversity and how they can practically be improved. This pioneering handbook shows how microdata can be used to give scholars and practitioners granular and real insights into how states work, and practical guidance on the process of state-building.” —Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University, author of State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century - "The Government Analytics Handbook is the most comprehensive work on practically building government administration I have ever seen, helping practitioners to change public administration for the better.” —Francisco Gaetani, Special Secretary for State Transformation, Government of Brazil - “The machinery of the state is central to a country’s prosperity. This handbook provides insights and methodological tools for creating a better shared understanding of the realities of a state, to support the redesign of institutions, and improve the quality of public administration.” —James Robinson, University of Chicago, coauthor of Why Nations FailPublication The Global Findex Database 2025: Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-16)The Global Findex 2025 reveals how mobile technology is equipping more adults around the world to own and use financial accounts to save formally, access credit, make and receive digital payments, and pursue opportunities. Including the inaugural Global Findex Digital Connectivity Tracker, this fifth edition of Global Findex presents new insights on the interactions among mobile phone ownership, internet use, and financial inclusion. The Global Findex is the world’s most comprehensive database on digital and financial inclusion. It is also the only global source of comparable demand-side data, allowing cross-country analysis of how adults access and use mobile phones, the internet, and financial accounts to reach digital information and resources, save, borrow, make payments, and manage their financial health. Data for the Global Findex 2025 were collected from nationally representative surveys of about 145,000 adults in 141 economies. The latest edition follows the 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021 editions and includes new series measuring mobile phone ownership and internet use, digital safety, and frequency of transactions using financial services. The Global Findex 2025 is an indispensable resource for policy makers in the fields of digital connectivity and financial inclusion, as well as for practitioners, researchers, and development professionals.Publication World Development Report 2021(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-03-24)Today’s unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated. But many barriers stand in the way, ranging from misaligned incentives and incompatible data systems to a fundamental lack of trust. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the tremendous potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of poor people, while also acknowledging its potential to open back doors that can harm individuals, businesses, and societies. To address this tension between the helpful and harmful potential of data, this Report calls for a new social contract that enables the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, ensures equitable access to that value, and fosters trust that data will not be misused in harmful ways. This Report begins by assessing how better use and reuse of data can enhance the design of public policies, programs, and service delivery, as well as improve market efficiency and job creation through private sector growth. Because better data governance is key to realizing this value, the Report then looks at how infrastructure policy, data regulation, economic policies, and institutional capabilities enable the sharing of data for their economic and social benefits, while safeguarding against harmful outcomes. The Report concludes by pulling together the pieces and offering an aspirational vision of an integrated national data system that would deliver on the promise of producing high-quality data and making them accessible in a way that promotes their safe use and reuse. By examining these opportunities and challenges, the Report shows how data can benefit the lives of all people, but particularly poor people in low- and middle-income countries.