The Early Childhood Development Country Profiles were launched in 2017 as an accountability mechanism for implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the World Bank and partners. These one-page summary sheets are now available for 197 countries and include 40 indicators relevant to early childhood development.

The profiles assemble, in one place, relevant available data for countries, regions and the globe. They provide a baseline against which progress can be monitored, including the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, many of which depend on ensuring the conditions for young children to survive and thrive. The country profiles also serve to direct attention to areas requiring additional effort and resources.

Data for the profiles are primarily extracted from comparable and publicly available global databases compiled and maintained by UN agencies; additional data on few indicators are drawn from published articles in peer-reviewed journals that include a technical appendix with country-level data. The database compiled to produce the profiles can be leveraged for further cross-country analysis of some of the key drivers and inputs that influence early childhood development.

The indicators selected for inclusion in the profiles relate to the conceptual framework for early childhood development published in the 2016 Lancet series, ‘Advancing Early Childhood Development: From Science to Scale’, and its derivative, the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development.

The country profiles are available on UNICEF’s dedicated website on statistics, the Nurturing Care website, the Early Childhood Development Action Network website and the Countdown to 2030 web page. They are accompanied by a technical appendix with indicator definitions and data sources as well as an underlying Excel database. They are available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The country profiles are produced by UNICEF and updated every two years, with technical guidance from the Nurturing Care for ECD Countdown to 2030 Technical Working Group (TWG). The TWG consists of academic experts and representatives from UNICEF (Secretariat), WHO and the World Bank. It maintains close ties with the Countdown to 2030 Technical Working Group, but the ECD profiles are produced as part of a separate initiative. The TWG also amplifies and promotes the uptake and use of the country profiles among its global, regional and national networks and platforms.

Harnessing Global Data to Advance Young Children’s Learning and Development emerged from work on the country profiles.

Members of the Nurturing Care for ECD Countdown to 2030 Technical Working Group

Linda Richter (Chair), University of Witwatersrand; Diego Luna-Bazaldua, the World Bank; Maureen Black, University of Maryland; Claudia Cappa, UNICEF; Joshua Jeong, Emory University; Joan Lombardi, Stanford University; Elizabeth Lule, ECDAN; Chunling Lu, Harvard University; Sheila Manji, WHO; Dana Charles McCoy, Harvard University; Juliana Chen Peraza, the World Bank; Chemba Raghavan, UNICEF; Kathleen Strong, WHO; Emily Vargas-Barón, RISE Institute

Tools and resources

 Blog post: Connecting the Dots on Early Childhood Development

Publications

 Below is a list of illustrative publications and reports on early childhood development. The list is neither exhaustive nor comprehensive but is meant to be representative of the rich literature and evidence on this topic.

Nurturing care

• Bhutta, Z. A., et al., ‘Optimising the Continuum of Child and Adolescent Health and Development’, The Lancet, vol. 393, no. 10176, 2019, pp. 1080-1082.
• Black, M. M., and A. C. Trude, ‘Conceptualizations of Child Development Benefit from Inclusion of the Nurturing Care Framework’, The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 149, no. 8, 2019, pp. 1307-1308.
• Black, M. M., et al., ‘The Principles of Nurturing Care Promote Human Capital and Mitigates Adversities from Preconception through Adolescence’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 6, no. 4, 2021, e:004436.
• Black, R. E., et al., ‘Health and Development from Preconception to 20 Years of Age and Human Capital’, The Lancet, vol. 399, no. 10336, 2022, 1730-1740.

Measurement

• Gove, A., and M. M. Black, ‘Measurement of Early Childhood Development and Learning under the Sustainable Development Goals’, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, vol. 17, no. 4, 2016, pp. 599-605.
• Raikes, A., et al., ‘Global Tracking of Access and Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education’, International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, vol. 17, no. 14, 2023.
• Richter, L. M., et al., ‘Early Childhood Development: An imperative for action and measurement at scale’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 4, issue suppl. 4, 2019.
• Richter, L. M., et al.,  ‘Measuring and Forecasting Progress in Education: What about early childhood?’, Nature Science of Learning, vol. 6, no. 1, 2021.
• United Nations Children’s Fund, Collecting Data on Early Childhood Development in Household Surveys, UNICEF, New York, 2024.

Promoting early childhood development

• Cuartas, J., et al., ‘Maternal, Paternal, and Other Caregivers’  Stimulation in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries’,  PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 7, 2020, e0236107.
• Daelmans, B., et al., ‘Effective Interventions and Strategies for Improving Early Child Development’, BMJ, vol. 351, 2015.

Scaling up efforts to promote early childhood development

• Darmstadt, G. L., et al.,  ‘Scaling Up Early Child Development Programmes in Low and Middle Income Countries’, Child: Care, Health and Development, vol. 44, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-3.
• Fredman, S., et al., ‘Recognizing Early Childhood Education as a Human Right in International Law’,  Human Rights Law Review, vol. 22, no. 4, 2022.
• Vargas-Barón, E.,  K. Diehl  and J. W. Small, ‘Improving Policy Environments for Infants and Young Children: Global status of multisectoral national policies for early childhood development’, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, 2022, pp. 193-209.
• Luan, Y., et al., ‘Global Development Assistance for Early Childhood Care and Education in 134 Low- and Middle-Income Countries, 2007-2021’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 9, no. 11, 2024, e015991.
• McCoy, D. C., S. Wolf and E. Tsinigo, ‘Improving Early Childhood Development on a Global Scale: Best practices for intervention’,  JAMA Pediatrics, vol. 176, no. 4, 2022, pp. 337-338.
• McCoy, D. C., J. Cuartas and J. Seiden, ‘Country-Level Improvements in Nurturing Care and Child Development’, JAMA Pediatrics, vol. 178, no. 1, 2024, pp. 84-86.
• Ponce, N., et al., ‘The Association of Minimum Wage on Child Nutritional Status on LMICS: A quasi-experimental multi-country study’, Global Public Health, vol. 13, no. 9, 2018, pp. 1307-1321.

Risks to early childhood development and equity

•  Li, Z., L. Richter and C. Lu, ‘Tracking Development Assistance for Reproductive,  Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health in Conflict-Affected Countries’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 4, no. 4, 2019, e001614.
• Li, Z., and N. Rao, ‘Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Development in China: Progress in meeting Sustainable Development Goal target 4.2’ , International Journal of Chinese Education, vol. 12, no. 2, 2023.
• Lu, C., M. M. Black and L. M. Richter, ‘Risk of Poor Development in Young Children in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries: An estimation and analysis at the global, regional, and country level’, The Lancet Global Health, vol. 4, no. 12, 2016, e916-e922.
• Lu, C., et al., ‘Inequalities in Early Childhood Care and Development in Low/Middle-Income Countries: 2010-2018’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 5, no. 2, 2020.
• Sania, A., et al., ‘Early Life Risk Factors of Motor, Cognitive and Language Development: A pooled analysis of studies from low/middle-income countries’, BMJ Open, vol. 9, no. 10, 2019, e026449.
• Victora, C. G., et al., ‘Effects of Early-Life Poverty on Health and Human Capital in Children and Adolescents: Analyses of national surveys and birth cohort studies in LMICs’, The Lancet, vol. 399, no. 10336, 2022, pp. 1741-1752.
• Yang, H., N. Rao and E. Pearson, ‘Inequality in Access to Early Childhood Care and Education Programs among 3- to 4-Year-Olds: Trends and variations across low- and middle-income countries’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, vol. 66, 2024, pp. 234-244.

COVID and early childhood development

• Lu, C., et al., ‘Assessing the Prevalence of Young Children Living in Households Prepared for COVID-19 in 56 Low- and Middle-Income Countries’, Global Health Research and Policy, vol. 7, no. 18, 2022, pp. 7-12.
• McCoy, D. C., et al., ‘Global Estimates of the Effects of COVID-19-Related Preschool Closures on Children’s Development, Learning, and Economic Wellbeing’, Child Development, vol. 92, no. 5, 2021, e883-e899.