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Early childhood care and development (ECCD)
The first six years of a child’s life is a time of great promise and rapid change, when their developing brain is most open to the influence of relationships and experiences. However, millions of children across the world are at risk of not reaching their full potential because they do not get the care and stimulation they need in the early stages of life.
To achieve the SDGs and ensure that all girls and boys, especially the most deprived, are developmentally on-track we need to start early. Save the Children works with families and communities to help children to develop foundational learning skills in the years leading up to school. Save the Children also works with communities and partners to advocate for policies and practices that recognise the value of starting early and investing in cost-effective, inclusive quality approaches to ECCD.
Our goal is that all children will access quality inclusive early childhood care and demonstrate improved child development outcomes.
Save the Children’s experience shows that to reach the most vulnerable children, we need to go beyond preschools. High quality caregiving must be supported both in homes and in early learning centres to build strong foundations for young girls and boys. Moreover, rural, linguistic minority and refugee children need urgent support as they are falling behind. Save the Children works to address these gaps through targeted interventions, such as early learning programmes that support children’s learning at home in emergency and post-disaster settings, among remote and nomadic communities, and in areas where preschools are not available or accessible.
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Baseline Study on International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA): Kavre
Save the Children began implementing Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs in Nepal in 1997 to help children learn and develop their full potential. Recently, Save the Children developed the International Development and Early Learning Asse
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What is Kangaroo Mother Care? Systematic review of literature
This study investigates the various available definitions of kangaroo mother care and identifies its core components.
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A Good Start: Advances in early childhood development. Early Childhood Matters
Celebrating nearly 50 years of operations, the Bernard van Leer Foundation publishes this issue of Early Childhood Matters as a reflection on the advances made over those past five decades on early education care and development. The first half of this is
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EFA Global Monitoring Report, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges
The EFA Global Monitoring Reports were begun by UNESCO in response to the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments, which was ratified by a 164 governments in 2000. The EFA Global Monitoring Reports monitor progres
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The Lottery of Birth: Giving all children an equal chance to survive
In many countries across the world, the odds of children surviving to celebrate their fifth birthday have improved considerably in recent years. Today, 17,000 fewer children die every day than was the case in 1990 and the global under-five child mortality
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Ethiopia ELM Endline: September 2015
Save the Children supports the Ethiopian government to strengthen Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) in Tigray, Oromia, Gondar (Amhara), Afar, and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) through both grants and sponsorship f
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Zambia Lufwanyama Sponsorship Baseline Progress Report
This report examines the results of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) implemented in Lufwanyama district in Zambia in October 2015. The assessment covered 318 children at the age of six, 168 of which who had received an E
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Transforming young lives through education: The 2014 review
Education is the means by which we equip our children with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the world. It’s a powerful tool in developing the full potential of everyone and in promoting individual and collective wellbeing. Read about how Sa
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First Read: Supporting families with young children to learn together
In Cambodia, only 18 percent of pre-primary school aged children are enrolled and participate in Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) services while children aged 3 to 5 years old represent 33%. Less than half of all children enrolled in primary sc
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Saving Lives Protecting Futures: Progress Report on the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health 2010-2015
In 2010, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health to accelerate progress towards achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4, 5, and 6. These goals addressed reducing child mortality, improving
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Ethiopia: ELMI Parenting Endline
Save the Children’s Early Literacy and Math initiative (ELM) began in the West Showa region of Ethiopia in early 2012. In recognition of the increased interest and commitment by the Government of Ethiopia to increasing access to ECCD services, a project w
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Afghanistan ECCD Study, November 2015
This study provides a cross-sectional summary of young children’s skills and development and is the first of its kind in Faryab, Saripol, Kandahar and Kabul provinces. Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) was