Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN)

Early Childhood Matters 2017 The Early Childhood Development Action Network: a global network to strengthen support for young children Lucy Bassett, Education Specialist, World Bank, Washington DC, USA & Ana Nieto, Early Childhood Development Specialist, UNICEF, New York, USA Mark this year in history as the one when a new global network committed to comprehensive early childhood development action is taking off! The Early Childhood Development Action Network is a global partnership committed to the proposition that all young children, anywhere in the world, in any circumstances, should achieve their developmental potential. The time is ripe for this endeavour. There have been remarkable advances in global evidence on the kinds of interventions – nurturing care, early stimulation, and protection from toxic stress – that can help children reach their full potential. And the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include early childhood development as part of the 2030 transformative agenda. SDG targets under health, nutrition, education, poverty, violence, and clean water and sanitation goals all contribute to better child development outcomes (The Global Goals for Sustainable Development, online). However, despite the evidence and global attention generated in recent years, an estimated 250 million children under 5 in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of failing to achieve their potential because of adversity during their early, formative years. This affects their brain development, causing lasting damage and contributing to the inter-generational cycle of poverty and lasting inequity. This gap in human potential is partially due to shortfalls in the application of emerging scientific knowledge to shape young children’s development, as well as a failure to take action at scale, using a multi-sector approach (Black et al., 2016). What’s more, while there are several players advocating for young children, their voices and advocacy are fragmented. It is urgent to scale-up equitable and high-quality programmes across sectors to provide young children with the opportunity to develop to their full potential and lead happy and productive lives. Political commitment, financial investment, coordinated work across stakeholders, and broader understanding of the importance of the early years of a child’s life are all crucial. The network will work, through countries and partners, to move the needle on these issues.