2-118 - Measuring early childhood development and quality at scale: Lessons from four low- and middle-income countries

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

Early childhood development is mentioned in the newly-adopted Sustainable Development Goals, with proposed global indicators to measure the percent of children “developmentally on track” and quality of pre-primary services as part of the education goal. Government ministries are moving quickly towards measurement and implementation at scale, and are searching for evidence to help inform this progression. There is new demand for information about the overall developmental status of children, especially at the start of formal schooling, and the quality of pre-primary education, likely to grow in upcoming years and frequently including large, representative samples.
Data on children’s development and the quality of services plays an important role in building sustainable systems. But issues in measuring and using data to inform policy include the complexity of using non-experimental findings to inform policy; capturing equity and ensuring cultural adaptation; and developing capacity for sustained measurement in countries where resources for early childhood development programs and policies are often limited. Representing the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes consortium, this panel will discuss measurement of quality and child development and learning in four low- and middle-income countries: Tanzania, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Colombia, with participation from lead researchers and technical partners from each country and moderation by MELQO’s global technical lead. This roundtable addresses SRCD’s strategic goals of communicating, exchanging and translating, by providing a forum to exchange ideas on using data to inform policy; and increasing diversity, by engaging in dialogue on application of developmental science in low- and middle-income countries.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Moderator

• Abbie Raikes, University of Nebraska College of Public Health

Panelists

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University

• Alonso Sanchez, World Bank

• Anna Smeby, UNICEF Tanzania

• Rabia Ali, World Bank