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2 Coordinated and Integrated Approaches to Investing in Young Children
2 Coordinated and Integrated Approaches to Investing in Young Children
Pages 7-22
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From page 7... ...
These potential advantages and disadvantages vary from one place to another, but their existence points to broader principles that extend across locales. SCRUTINIZING ARGUMENTS FOR COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION The consensus among early childhood development experts is that children develop holistically, observed Jan van Ravens, a senior policy maker and consultant affiliated with the Child Study Center at Yale University.
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From page 8... ...
"There is no evidence, to the best of my knowledge, that children in combined programs fare less well than children in integrated programs, because they are never compared in a research setting," said van Ravens. Researchers have found synergy in integrated programs because that is where they have looked for it, not necessarily because it does not exist in combined programs.
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From page 9... ...
Another problem is that multisectoral policy development often does not fit into regular planning and budget cycles, van Ravens noted. As a result, it tends to take place in a political vacuum, which can frustrate endorsement and implementation.
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From page 10... ...
Targets can be used to monitor progress through existing sectoral systems of monitoring and evaluation, while existing sectoral councils can also be used for stakeholder consultation. COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL At the national level, early childhood development policies, service programs, strategic plans, and laws are usually multisectoral, observed Emily Vargas-Barón, director of the RISE (Reconstruction and International Security through Education)
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From page 11... ...
Examples of multisectoral programs include parent education and support programs, early childhood intervention services, health and nutrition, and social protection. Even preschool programs tend to be multisectoral, Vargas-Barón observed, because a preschool program may draw on health services, nutrition services, social protection services, and so on, whereas establishing these services within an education system can be very expensive.
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From page 12... ...
Vargas-Barón presented findings from a study on the evolution of early childhood development policies since 2000 that included five country case studies regarding short-term results from policy planning processes (Vargas-Barón, 2015a)
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From page 13... ...
By anticipating the development of regional offices for multisectoral coordination, collaboration, supervision, and support, nations can avoid having later problems at the regional level. In Latin America and elsewhere, a number of countries have been able to take integrated and multisectoral programs that have been evaluated to be successful and scale them up to the national level.
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From page 14... ...
TABLE 2-1 Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers in Bosnia Extend from Preconception Services to Preschool and Family Support Services Preschool Play Groups and Family Support Preconception and Parent Education Early Childhood Support to and Case Monitoring and Prenatal Education and Support Intervention Preschools Management Evaluation Home and center- Home and center Home visits with Play groups Center-based Monitoring and based visits and toy and center support with parents and social work evaluation for all book libraries services children together services and ECD services referrals Complements health Fills gaps in 0 to 3 Children from 0 Fills gaps in Ensures support Assesses inputs, services services to 3+ with delays, preschool for vulnerable outputs, and malnutrition education children outcomes disabilities SOURCE: Vargas-Barón, 2015b.
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From page 15... ...
. The study describes the evolution and status of policy planning for early childhood development from before the year 2000 to 2014 and includes five country case studies on initial policy impacts.
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From page 16... ...
TABLE 2-2 Adoption of Early Childhood Development (ECD) Policy Instruments by Region # of ECD % with Region # of Countries Policies Policies South Asia 6 5 83 Southeast Asia 11 7 64 Sub-Saharan Africa 49 29 59 South and Central America 20 9 45 South Pacific 14 6 43 Caribbean 28 5 18 Central and Eastern Europe and the 29 4 10 Commonwealth of Independent States Central and Eastern Asia 14 1 7 Middle East and North Africa 19 1 5 Western Europe 23 1 4 North America 3 0 0 Totals 216 68 -- SOURCE: Vargas-Barón, 2015a.
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From page 17... ...
One is to expand research on policy planning and implementation for early childhood development. In addition, more well-trained and experienced early childhood development policy advisors and policy analysts are urgently needed, she said, along with at least one graduate university program for training early childhood development policy planners and analysts from all world regions.
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From page 18... ...
The ways in which local governance can include budgets that cover multiple sectors of services THE ROLE OF PARENTS In response to a question about the role of parents in promoting the integration of services, Vargas-Barón observed that parents must always be included in participatory policy planning processes. In addition, the parental role in early childhood intervention services or the transition from preschool to primary school is extremely important.
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From page 19... ...
For example, parent programs are most effective with leaders from local communities, but the levels of education and training in some communities may be low, making it difficult to find enough leaders. COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE The presentations of van Ravens and Vargas-Barón led to a more general discussion of coordination and integration that threaded through the entire workshop.
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From page 20... ...
"We have not taken our technical knowledge that we are sharing here to that level of political prioritization. As a forum, we have to bring that now into our conversation." Sara Watson, national director of ReadyNation, a business membership organization that advocates for early childhood, observed that in the United States, business leaders have been a major political factor to win investments and, in particular, to push for the multisectoral approach.
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From page 21... ...
Similarly, quantitative data on the impact of integrated, partially integrated, or nonintegrated programs could help support the momentum for change. Along those lines, van Ravens noted that another way to gauge the effect of integration would be to compare integrated and nonintegrated programs to determine if integrated systems provide greater benefits than combined programs.
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