The Bank’s Investment in Early Child Development
Every year since 1990, the World Bank has increased its investment
in ECD programs, from approximately US$126 million in 1990 to
US$1.7 billionin cumulative lending as of June 2006. This substantial
investment is for:
- 15 free-standing ECD projects, in 13 countries (US$791.3 million)
- 76 social-sector projects with ECD components (US$888.3 mil-
lion), in 39 countries - 2 ECD projects in the pipeline, in Bolivia and Brazil.
ECD Symposia: Synthesis and Dissemination of Knowledge
In addition to lending funds to countries for ECD programs, the
World Bank plays a major role in gathering, synthesizing, and dis-
seminating knowledge about early child development and ECD ser-
vices worldwide. For example, during the past 10 years, the World
Bank has sponsored and convened the following three international
symposia on early child development:
- Early Child Development: Investing in our Children’s Future,
April 1996, Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Young 1997) - From Early Child Development to Human Development, April
2000, World Bank, Washington, D.C. (Young 2002) - Early Child Development: A Priority for Sustained Economic
Growth and Equity, September 2005, World Bank, Washington,
D.C. (Young 2007).
Within the series, each symposium has built on the preceding one
to advance ECD policy, programming, and funding worldwide.
The Expanding Horizon for ECD Internationally
The Bank’s third symposium, held in September 2005, triggered
many positive steps forward. The specific objectives for the sympo-
sium were to:
- Increase awareness of early child development—as perhaps the
most important investment that a nation can make to raise and
assure the quality of its human capital
6 Mary Eming Young