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Childcare and early childhood development programmes and policies : their relationship to eradicating child poverty

PENN, Helen
June 2004

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The paper explores paradigms, arguments and evidence on which international agencies draw in discussing early childhood development (ECD). These include assumptions about poverty and the role of ECD in reducing poverty, assumptions about ‘the robustness’ of ECD and the contexts in which ECD takes place. Two case studies, one from Swaziland and one from Kazakhstan are used to explore strengths and limitations. The paper concludes that almost all the evidence for the effectiveness of ECD in determining cognitive, social and economic outcomes is drawn either directly from the North, particularly from the USA, or relies on assumptions drawn from work carried out in the North as a basis for recommendations in the South. The paper points out that ECD may be a useful form of practical relief to mitigate childhood poverty in particular circumstances and this could include children affected by HIV/AIDS. There is a section on page 35 on early childhood development and HIV/AIDs. Other vulnerable children are noted as those with time poor mothers and those in situations of war and conflict

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