September 2005, the need for a common assessment tool and mea-
sures is urgent and must be addressed now, because:
- The public and private sectors recognize increasingly the value
of ECD programs as a productive investment and business im-
perative. - The documented lessons from evaluations of ECD programs in
industrialized countries are fueling efforts to expand and scale
up ECD programs in developing countries. - Countries and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are tak-
ing up the challenge of monitoring ECD outcomes. - Low- and middle-income countries are pursuing innovative op-
tions for financing ECD initiatives.
The opportunity to expand ECD efforts and funding to support
young children’s development is greater now than ever before. The
global ECD community is in a unique position to take advantage of
burgeoning philanthropy—and to make a case for investing in young
children but only if it has solid evidence to support its claims. With
appropriate and adequate data, the ECD community could foster ac-
tion to perhaps now meet McCain and Mustard’s (1999) challenge
when they said—
As a society we spend large sums of money measuring the perfor-
mances of businesses and the economy and next to nothing on the in-
dicators that are most crucial for our children and for the future per-
formance of our population. In view of the importance of the early
years on the future of our population which is pivotal to the success of
our economy, it is time that governments closed the crucial gap in our
information base.Toward a Population-based Assessment of Early Child
Development
Early child development, like health, is a populationphenomenon
with equality as a goal. “Population-based” means incorporating or
Measuring Child Development to Leverage ECD Policy and Investment 263