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

 

Measurement

 

Promoting early childhood development

 

Scaling up efforts to promote early childhood development

 

Risks to early childhood development and equity

 

COVID and early childhood development