FROM PAHO/EQUIDAD
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Making Early Childhood Development a Priority: Lessons from Vancouver

 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Working Paper

Clyde Hertzman, Human Early Learning Partnership May 2004

 Available online as PDF file at:
http://www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/documents/Making%20ECD%20a%20Priority.pdf

The early years last a lifetime. Although this statement can be dismissed
as a truism, it is profoundly significant. There is now an impressive body
of evidence, from a wide range of sources, demonstrating that early child
development affects health, well-being and competence across the balance of
the life course. 56;Early child development, as I use it here, is not a
program or a service (though it is influenced by them), but rather an
understanding of the way a child functions at a given age. The dimensions
of early child development that matter the most are the physical, the
social/emotional, and the cognitive/language. How a child develops across
each of these dimensions, from before birth to school age, influences each
of health, well-being and competence for the rest of life.

 Summary of Findings from Vancouver

Vulnerability spans all neighbourhoods

Segregated poor neighbourhoods are at the highest risk

Programs are underfunded and unstable

Barriers to access are significant

Kindergarten vulnerabilities are a powerful determinant of school success

 Policy Implications

In seeking to address the issue of improving child development as a
society, the evidence presented above

has the following policy implications:

Focus on environments, not one-on-one services

Improve inter-sectoral collaboration

Equalize access to quality childcare

Enhance universal access across neighbourhoods

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part
of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality
in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health
Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.
[DD/ IKM Area]

60;Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is61;.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and
not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members61;.
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