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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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The Power of Reading: How the next government can unlock every child's potential through reading
The mission of the Read On. Get On. campaign is to ensure every child is able to read well when they leave primary school by the year 2025. This document is directed toward the United Kingdom government, elected in 2015. This report sets out the key polic
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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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Child Rights Education Toolkit: Rooting Child Rights in Early Childhood Education, Primary and Secondary Schools
This toolkit, developed by UNICEF, defines what is meant by child rights education and the child rights approach. It explains the relevance of child rights education to UNICEF’s mission and the ways in which education can take place in a range of conte
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Advancing the Right to Read in Rwanda: Programme baselines and studies- Summary Report
In 2013, Save the Children launched an education signature programme, Advancing the Right to Read (ARR), which is now operational in five districts in Rwanda. The programme aims to contribute to addressing the global crisis in learning by providing a cont
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Promoting Emergent Literacy in the Revised Rwandan Pre-primary Curriculum
Emergent literacy is one of the most important foundational abilities children must develop before beginning primary school. The process of becoming literate begins very young, and many early experiences can contribute to emergent literacy. If children do
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Literacy Boost Afghanistan Year 1 October 2014
This report examines the results of a learner background survey and reading assessment conducted in Faryab and Saripul, Afghanistan, prior to beginning the Literacy Boost intervention and again after a year of implementation. This report explores: the com
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Small Children, Big Cities: Impact through design intervention
Organised by the Bernard van Leer Froundation with support from the National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Ministry of Urban Development (Government of India), the conference Small Children, Big Cities: Building Smart Cities for Child-friendly 21 st-
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Understanding children’s work and youth employment outcomes in Laos: Country Report
The report examines the related issues of child labour and youth employment in Laos. Guided by observed outcomes in terms of schooling, work activities and status in the labour market, the report considers the economic as well as the social determinants o
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Children's Multidimensional Health and Medium-Run Cognitive Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
This paper examines the effects of children’s health on their education in later life stages in low- and middle-income countries. It has the following four objectives: To explore whether the positive relationship between children’s height and cognitive sk
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Understanding children’s work and youth employment outcomes in Laos: Summary Report
The report examines the related issues of child labour and youth employment in Laos. Guided by observed outcomes in terms of schooling, work activities and status in the labour market, the report considers the economic as well as the social determinants o
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Are Cash Transfers a Silver Bullet? Evidence from the Zambian Child Grant
How effective can cash transfers be in combating poverty and social inequality in developing countries? This study is one of the first to demonstrate both protective and productive impacts of a national unconditional cash transfer program. The Zambian Gov
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Tsunami Ten Years On: Stories of Change 2004-2014
The objective of this study is to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, sustainability, and impact of the tsunami response in Sri Lanka and Indonesia 10 years later. A cross cutting theme of this study is the assessment of whether communities are now better