Financing Investments in Young Children Globally
Summary of a Joint Workshop by the Institute of Medicine, National Research Council, and The Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development, Ambedkar University, Delhi (2015)
March 6, 2015 :: 108 pages ISBN: 978-0-309-31610-1
Pdf dowmload: https://www.nap.edu/login.php?record_id=18993&page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nap.edu%2Fdownload.php%3Frecord_id%3D18993
Overview
On August 26–27, 2014, the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally hosted its second workshop, in New Delhi, India. The forum’s first workshop, titled “The Cost of Inaction,” was held in Washington, DC, in April 2014 and focused on the science of promoting optimal development through investing in young children and the potential eco-nomic consequences of inaction. This second workshop, on financing investments for young children, built on the first workshop and brought together stakeholders from such disciplines as social protection, nutrition, education, health, finance, economics, and law and included practitioners, advocates, researchers, and policy makers.

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FORUM ON INVESTING IN YOUNG CHILDREN GLOBALLY – OVERVIEW
In January 2014, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC), in collaboration with the IOM Board on Global Health, launched the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally. At this meeting, the participants agreed to focus on creating and sustaining, over 3 years, an evidence-driven community of stakeholders that aims to explore existing, new, and innovative science and research from around the world and translate this evidence into sound and strategic investments in policies and practices that will make a difference in the lives of children and their caregivers.

Forum activities will highlight the science and economics of integrated investments in young children living in low-resourced regions of the world across the areas of health, nutrition, education, and social protection.

As a result, the forum will explore a holistic view of children and caregivers by integrating analyses and disciplines that span from neurons to neighborhoods and discuss the science from the microbiome to culture. Moreover, the forum will support an integrative vision to strengthen human capital. This work will be done through the forum and will engage in a series of stakeholder consultative sessions or public workshops, each focusing on specific aspects of science integration, bridging equity gaps, and implementing and scaling evidence-informed efforts.

A set of forum goals includes supporting the development of integrated science on children’s health, nutrition, education, and social protection and working with policy makers, practitioners, and researchers to raise awareness of integrated approaches to improve the lives of children and their caregivers. Forum objectives to meet these goals are as follows:

1. To shape a global vision of healthy child development across cultures and contexts, extending from preconception through at least age eight, and across currently siloed areas of health, nutrition, education, and social protection.

2. To identify opportunities for intersectoral coordination among researchers, policy makers, implementers, practitioners, and advocates to improve quality practices in public and private settings and bring these practices to scale, in the context of the economics of strategic, integrated investing in young children.

3. To inform ongoing conversations and activities of groups working on issues related to young children globally, such as the sustainable development goals and indicators being developed.

4. To identify current models of program and policy financing across health, education, nutrition, and social protection within the framework of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health that aim to improve children’s developmental potential.

This information could be used to illuminate opportunities for new financing structures and forms of investments that may be more effective in improving child outcomes and potentially drive economic development.