ture Forum to host a World Culture Forum on early child develop-
ment in Monterey, Mexico, in 2007.In Turkey
National Advocacy Campaign. Turkey’s Mother Child Education
Foundation (AÇEV) hosted a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in
February 2006 as part of its national advocacy campaign “7 Is Too
Late.” Supported by six major NGOs, the campaign promotes early
childhood education in Turkey and has generated extensive inter-
est in the media, private sector, and public. The most important
outcome of the conference was a pledge by Finansbank of Turkey
to commit 5 percent (US$20 million) of its annual profit to support
social responsibility projects (of which AÇEV constitutes a major
part) in Turkey. In addition, the president of Finansbank called on
other business leaders to fund ECD programs and to assume a com-
mitment to early child development as a corporate responsibility.A Model Program.The Turkish Early Enrichment Program (TEEP) is
being implemented widely in Turkey and is being used as a model
for ECD programs in other Middle Eastern countries and the
Netherlands. The program has been evaluated extensively. The
most recent evaluation, conducted 21 years after the program was
initiated, yielded results similar to those from U.S. studies. The
findings show that the children of parents who participated in
the enrichment program have, as young adults, a higher earning
power and higher use of technology than do children of parents
who did not participate in the program.In 10 Countries
Impact Evaluation Initiative.The participants at the World Bank’s
third ECD symposium underscored the need to evaluate the im-
pact of different ECD investment approaches in developing coun-
tries. In follow-up, the Bank–Netherlands Partnership Program
(BNPP) approved a fund to support impact evaluations of two ECD
strategies—to improve children’s school readiness and school per-
formance—in 10 countries across at least four developing regions.The ECD Agenda: Closing the Gap 9