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Children Need to Thrive, Not Just Survive

April 23, 2015

Senior UNICEF adviser offers perspectives on early childhood development and the Sustainable Development Goals

As the deadline for the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals adopted by nearly 200 countries draws near, the gains for children in many measures are encouraging: Three million children’s lives have been saved; four out of five receive vaccinations; and some 590 million children now attend primary school.

The outcomes for many children, however, are not as hopeful.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals succeed the Millennium Development Goals and provide a new 15-year global agenda that focuses on human rights, equality and sustainability. As countries around the world close out the first set of goals and begin policy implementation of the next, it is a time of paradigm shift in early childhood development, Pia Britto, Ph.D., a senior adviser for early childhood development at UNICEF, said in a Milbank Lecture at the Yale School of Public Health on Wednesday.

Unlike, the Millenium Development Goals, which focused largely on poverty and survival, early childhood development is being explicitly targeted in the new program.

“It is important to invest early, because the early years matter,” Britto told the gathering in Winslow Auditorium.

In the first years of life, children have already developed many of the foundational skills that will dictate the course of their lives–from language, physical development, communication, general knowledge and developing a sense of who they are. By kindergarten, great inequities in these areas are already apparent. “Early childhood development is a great equalizer and it is most cost effective,” she said.

Data collected from 40 countries show great variations in the number of children who are considered developmentally “on track” in their health, learning and psychosocial well-being. In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 50 percent of children meet the benchmarks. On average a third of all children are considered behind.

In the last 10 years, an abundance of research on childhood development and health has had a huge influence on shaping the policy agenda for the next 15 years.

“Change is possible because of academic institutions and the science and knowledge that is generated,” said Britto.

Policymakers relied heavily on recent research to identify169 targets in for early childhood development and the indicators that will be used to measure progress. Britto called for further research in developing meaningful indicators and tools to measure children’s well-being.

Britto’s lecture was part of the Yale School of Public Health’s centennial Milbank Public Health in the 21st Century Lecture Series. Three more Milbank lectures are planned during the remainder of the year. The next scheduled lecture will feature Lynn Goldman, dean of Public Health at George Washington University, on September 9.