Research on Early Childhood Development in Low-Income Countries
On March 26, SRCD and the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution co-hosted a half-day workshop: "Research on Early Childhood Development in Low-Income Countries." The purpose of this workshop was to take stock of recent developments, identify gaps, and propose next steps for advancing the field. Participants came from a range of settings, including research institutions, foundations, development organizations, U.S. agencies, and multilateral agencies.
The workshop opened with remarks from CUE Senior Fellow Jacques van der Gaag and SRCD Office for Policy and Communications Director Martha Zaslow. Marc H. Bornstein of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, followed with a presentation on findings from a recent special section of SRCD’s research journal Child Development Child Development in Developing Countries. The articles in the special section used data from the third wave of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MISC)—a nationally representative, internationally comparable household survey conducted in multiple developing countries—to examine protective and risk factors for children's development.
The three presentations that followed focused on early childhood intervention findings from around the world: Jef L. Leroy of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) presented on a systematic review of evaluation research on the impacts of day care programs on child nutrition, health, and cognitive and social development in developing countries; Amar Hasan from the World Bank presented on initial results from an early childhood development evaluation in Indonesia; and Pablo Stansberry from Save the Children presented on results from a randomized impact evaluation of a center-based early childhood development program in rural Mozambique.
Discussants included Maureen Black from the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, Florencia Lopez-Boo from the Inter-American Development Bank, Mary Young from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, and Kimber Bogard from the National Academy of Sciences. The concluding discussion was facilitated by Joan Lombardi from the Bernard van Leer Foundation and also by Kofi Marfo from the University of South Florida, who recently co-edited a special section in the SRCD journal Child Development Perspectives Strengthening Africa's Contributions to Child Development Research.
For more information on the workshop, including links to a workshop summary and related PowerPoint slides, please visit the workshop event page on the Brookings website.
