Safe water and sanitation are essential for sustainable development, yet over 2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed drinking water, and 3.5 billion lack safe sanitation. These gaps are not just inconvenient; they are dangerous. Poor water and sanitation infrastructure leads to high rates of waterborne illness, drains household time and income, and … [Read more...] about Why Water and Sanitation in Early Life Matter for Long-Term Cognitive Development
Social Protection
Care Work Is Also Work: Recognizing and Valuing Women’s Role in Care
Care is a universal need. All of us have received and will receive care at some point in life: in early childhood and later in life due to aging, illness, or potential disability. However, the responsibility for providing care falls primarily on women, who in Latin America and the Caribbean account for 71% of the hours dedicated to caring for others (including both children and … [Read more...] about Care Work Is Also Work: Recognizing and Valuing Women’s Role in Care
Challenging Inequalities: Key Policies to Advance the Early Childhood Agenda
We tend to remember very little about what happens to us in the early years of life. And yet, it is during those years that the foundations of learning and our future trajectory are built," said Diana Rodríguez, Special Advisor on Gender and Diversity to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), during the opening of the event where we celebrated World … [Read more...] about Challenging Inequalities: Key Policies to Advance the Early Childhood Agenda
Closing Gaps in Early Childhood Development: A Renewed Commitment
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, a global commitment to protect and promote children's healthy development and fulfillment of their potential, was adopted 35 years ago. On this World Children’s Day, during the event Challenging Inequalities: How to Close Gaps in Early Childhood Development, we asked ourselves: Have we lived up to this commitment? What challenges do … [Read more...] about Closing Gaps in Early Childhood Development: A Renewed Commitment
Climate change and its impact on young children: there’s no time to lose
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recently adopted General Comment 26 on children’s right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. This comment emphasizes how climate change and environmental degradation jeopardize the rights of children in general. It calls for urgent action to protect those who are most vulnerable. What is climate change and … [Read more...] about Climate change and its impact on young children: there’s no time to lose