The Promise of Early Childhood Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Issues and Policy Options

This World Bank book on Early Childhood Development (ECD) surveys evidence on the impact of ECD programmes worldwide, including providing empirical evidence, and reports on the effect that ECD policies and programmes have on poverty and inequality in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. It was written to generate data on how to effectively design, fund, and provide quality ECD programmes to all children, from birth through age 6, in the LAC region, especially those from low-income families. Two of the key implications of the study are that individual countries need to develop national ECD policies before they can effectively scale up and sustain broader investments in this area, and that more rigorous evaluations and cost accounting of ECD programmes are needed.

As stated here, "The micro context - the interaction between a child and her or his primary caregiver during the early years - sets a child on a trajectory that affects her or his future development. In addition, the availability of programs, services, and policies directed at children, their caregivers, or both, affects this interaction and trajectory." The macro context for programmes, policies, and services is considered the economic, political, and social context. Three key ECD outcomes - cognitive development, socio-emotional development, and physical well-being and growth - are used as the analytical framework for evaluating existing programmes. ECD policies, including interventions in health, nutrition, education, and poverty alleviation, also impact ECD outcomes, as illustrated by the analysis. Life outcomes influenced by ECD and shown in the analysis include, among other things, schooling levels, health, fertility, earnings and other labour market outcomes, as well as the probability of engaging in risky behaviours such as crime.

The book documents the LAC context as having large regional socioeconomic disparities that disadvantage children. Those who benefit most from ECD programmes, according to research cited here, are those disadvantaged populations, including indigenous groups, with least access to social services. Most ECD programmes are independently run and vary in scale and services offered. Common goals are antenatal care, enhancement of ECD, and education of parents and caregivers in better parenting, health, and hygiene practices. "ECD programs in the region thus affect children from birth to age 6, their mothers, their caregivers, daycare centers, preschools, health centers, and communities."

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes show varying results: in Mexico, positive effects on the physical development of young children, but not improved cognitive outcomes; in Chile, improved probability of young children attending preschool; and in Nicaragua, reduced developmental delays. "Parenting programs in Jamaica, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and elsewhere suggest that parents do improve their childrearing and child stimulation techniques, resulting in children with improved development of cognitive, language, motor, social, and other skills.... Early education and preschool programs in Argentina and Uruguay show that children’s language and math test scores, behavioral skills, as well as their long-term educational attainments, benefit from preschool attendance."

Nutrition programmes, including, in some cases, supplements and deworming, are analysed, showing both physical health and growth and cognitive outcomes. Positive effects were found in programmes that conditioned benefits (often CCT) on health controls and growth monitoring, such as children’s attendance at health centres. "Evidence from programs in Guatemala, Jamaica, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Bolivia suggest that interventions that offer nutrition supplements, together with those that combine several strategies (e.g., parenting practices, early childhood care, and nutrition) have positive effects on children’s acquisition of language, reasoning, vocabulary, and schooling."

Despite what are cited as clear indicators of positive results from ECD programmes, the book describes the need for developing national ECD policies championed by high-level political leaders that have a holistic approach to their implementation. The authors conclude that: "Some of the core 'building blocks' for a national ECD policy include: (i) defining an institutional anchor and achieving intersectoral coordination; (ii) ensuring adequate funding (e.g., by creating a dedicated national fund, using existing social funds or budgets, or instituting fee-sharing schemes or earmarked taxes); (iii) defining core priorities, such as whether policies will be targeted or universal, which populations take priority, and what proportion of funds will be allocated to ECD activities; (iv) building on the success of existing interventions, based on rigorous evaluations and cost accounting; and (v) ensuring coherence with other related policies from inception."