The Early Childhood Development Initiative: an Investment for Life

ALAS, as a founding member of the ECD Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the World Bank partnered to launch the ECD Initiative: an Investment for Life, which seeks to mobilize opinion, policies, and resources in the region, as a cost-effective way to fight inequality and improve opportunities for its citizens.

During the next three years The Early Childhood Initiative will provide US$300 million in new funding and technical support to help countries create Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The initiative, together with the ECD Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean, will present new policy options to the Millennium Development Goals Summit 2010 (scheduled for September) and the XX Ibero-American Summit, which will take place in Argentina later this year

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Documents:
The Promise of Early Childhood Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Early Childhood Development Secretariat

The Early Childhood Development Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean is a unique project developed by ALAS and The Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Secretariat seeks to develop research, policies and strategies that help scale up attention programs for children aged between zero and six years old in the region. Its objectives are to identify and promote best practices in early childhood development (ECD); to assist in the identification of adequate monitoring procedures; to identify pilot projects that can be scaled up and adapted to the region’s countries; and, through the Iberoamerican General Secretariat and the Organization of Iberoamerican States, to present specific recommendations to the governments in the next XIX Iberoamerican Summit in Portugal. For this purpose, the Secretariat will incorporate the governments’ point persons who will receive and discuss the recommendations.

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Documents:
Commitments Universal Coverage
ECD Report: Executive Summary

Centers For Early Childhood, Education for Development

Centers for early Childhood, Education for Development is a joint project between ALAS and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires directed to assist the neighborhoods that have the highest levels of poverty. It consists of the selection of existing nurseries and community dining halls in the neighborhoods of Villa Soldati, Bajo Flores, Villa Lugano, La Boca, Villa 21-24, Barracas and Parque Avellaneda, in order to be recycled, equipped and turned into Centers for Early Childhood that guarantee the healthy development of girls and boys from 45 days to 4 years old who are in a vulnerable situation. This project seeks to reach a total of 1.200 girls and boys, and to broaden in a 20% the educational coverage for children under five years old that live in the southern area of the city.

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