Join us for a webinar to launch the Early Childhood Development Hub: Knowledge and Innovation for Latin America and the Caribbean this Thursday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m. EST. At this event you will learn more about the new Hub and have the opportunity to speak with experts about three elements that are key to achieving quality early childhood development services at scale: innovation, measurement, and research. You can register for the event at this link.
In these challenging times that inevitably affect the youngest children, we need good news. And we have it: the Early Childhood Development Hub has been launched to help facilitate access to resources on early childhood development. The Hub is a website that consolidates into a single location resources produced throughout the region to support the development of children up to 5 years of age. The aim is to promote the exchange of knowledge and to provide other regions of the world with access to the wealth of knowledge on this topic produced in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Hub recognize that the evolution of policies and actions to support early childhood development in the region has been a learning process. As a region, we have continually learned about early childhood development through
(1) innovation in the design and implementation of programs that are adjusted to the different needs of our countries;
(2) the production of rigorous evaluations and studies that are influential in the design and improvement of public policies; and
(3) the development of tools and resources in multiple formats that enable us to promote the importance of early child development and improve services and programs. The Hub aims to facilitate access to these initiatives by offering more than 2,000 links to early childhood development resources available online produced by different individuals and organizations in the region.
This collective learning initiative is promoted by the Early Childhood Development Innovation Fund, comprised of the IDB, Fundación FEMSA, Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, Open Society Foundations, and Porticus. Available in Spanish English, and Portuguese, the Hub is directed towards governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, international organizations, students, families, and all others interested in understanding and learning about early childhood development in the region. Resources on the webpage include:
- Information on innovative programs in the region: The Hub uses an interactive map to describe and facilitate access to innovative programs and experiences in the region. The programs are considered innovative if they respond to a problem related to early childhood development or local needs using novel or improved tools, services, or operational processes. Programs are also considered innovative if they adapt existing interventions to new contexts or new populations.
- Publications: Academic articles published in international reviews, working papers, books, reports, and technical notes on early childhood development with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Measurement tools: Links to surveys in the countries that measure child development and the quality of the family environment in the region. Also, presents services that have quality monitoring information systems, and identify studies that measure the structural quality and the quality of interactions between adults and children both in centers as well as during home visits in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Tools: Manuals, toolkits, guides, recommendation documents, curricula, and guidelines on early childhood development that can be applied to Latin America and the Caribbean. These materials can be used by mothers, fathers, caregivers, teachers, and implementers.
- Blogs: Links to recent articles that address early childhood development topics in the region.
- Information on COVID-19: Links to websites that collect resources on the effect of COVID-19 on children up to 5 years of age and how to support children, parents, caregivers, and educators in this context.
- Events: National or regional events or webinars that focus on early childhood development.
- Organizations: Links to websites of organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean that work on early childhood development: (1) Early childhood networks; (2) information platforms; (3) the public sector, organizations at the national level in charge of the development of public policies on early childhood development; (4) the private sector and civil society: private companies, nongovernmental organizations, and foundations, among others, that support early childhood development policies in each of the countries; (5) the Innovation Observatory that monitors, invests in, assesses, and monitors early childhood development projects implemented by other organizations; (6) research centers that carry out studies on early childhood development in the region; and (7) international organizations that have projects or work directly in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Videos, podcasts, courses, and MOOCS: Links to courses that explain concepts and provide information and learning materials about early childhood development in the region.
We invite you to explore the Hub and learn about early childhood development in Latin America and the Caribbean by visiting https://desarrollo-infantil.iadb.org/en
Do you work on early childhood development in the region? Do you produce any of the resources included in the Hub? Tell us about it in the comments section or mention it on @BIDgente on Twitter.
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