Early Childhood
Care and
Development
(ECCD): Global,
Regional, and
Philippine
Situation
Accelerating ECCD Program in Lanao del Sur, BARMM
26-27 February 2025
1
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital Importance of Early Years
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Early environmental conditions –deprivation, stress,
relationships, language – literally “sculpt” the
developing brain
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital Importance of Early Years
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Brain Development
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital Importance of Early Years
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Brain Development
Source: Nelson et al (2017). Atypical Brain Development in Bangladeshi Infants Exposed to Profound Early Adversity.
Presented at Conference of Society for Research in Child Development.
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital Importance of Early Years
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• 80% of brain development happens between 0-3 years old.
• Early learning experiences lay a foundation for lifelong learning.
• Investing in ECCE gives the highest economic and social returns 1$ =9~ 17$
• Rapid and constant technological advancements, social media, etc. present risks
and threats.
• Disasters, emergencies, and climate-related disruptions add new risks to young
child survival and development.
• Child rights - now and future
• Young children from the most vulnerable populations face multiple intersecting
vulnerabilities
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital
Importance of Early Years
Sensitive Period in Early Brain Development Rate of Return to Investments in Human Capital
Building Strong Foundations: The Vital
Importance
Sensitive Period in Early Brain Development of Early Years
Rate of Return to Investments in Human Capital
8
Nurturing Care Framework
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Focus on the needs of a child Enabling environments
Nurturing Care: Helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential– UNICEF | for every child
Nurturing Care: Helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential– UNICEF | for every child
Nurturing Care: Helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential– UNICEF | for every child
Nurturing Care: Helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential– UNICEF | for every child
Nurturing Care: Helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential– UNICEF | for every child
Deprivations in Early Childhood: Global Situation
15
Status of nurturing care in the East and Asia Pacific Region
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Health & Nutrition
• 8.5 million children under 5 are stunted
• More than 40.5 million children under 5 (around 29%) are at risk of poor
development
• 65% of children face multiple climate and environmental shocks in
the region, compared to global average of 37%.
Early Learning
• 16 million young children are not enrolled in any type of ECCE.
Responsive Caregiving
• Limited learning environment at home: 4-56% of families with children’s books.
Safety and Security
• 8.4million children aged 1-4 experienced some form of violent discipline
Policy environment
• Pre-primary education not yet compulsory
• Many countries have ECD policies and plans, but challenges in implementation
• Progress in maternity leave policies but, the duration varies and insufficient
Learning crisis in Southeast Asia
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• Preschool enrolment increased in 30 years from 13%
to 82%, yet enrolment is still not universal.
• 45% of children in Southeast Asia in learning poverty
• Countries in Southeast Asia meeting the
international standards in reading proficiency among
grade 5 students vary from 2% to 82%.
• 37% of children in the region learn in a language
they do not understand.
• 35 million out of school even before the pandemic.
These existing inequalities and challenges have been
further exacerbated by emergencies and climate crisis.
ECCD Situation in the
Philippines
15 / 1,000 neonatal 9 out of 10 under
mortality 2 y.o. do not eat a
22 / 1,000 infant healthy diet
mortality 23.6% under 6
26 / 1,000 under 5 stunting
mortality
5.6% under 6
19% of 3-4 y.o. wasting
accessing ECE
services (about
3.6 million not
attending) 63% of 3-4
77% of 5 y.o. y.o. subject to
enrolled in violent
Kindergarten discipline at
home
23% of 24-59 months developmentally OFF track (health, learning,
psychosocial wellbeing)
90% of 10-year-olds in the
Philippines are unable to read at the
expected level (source: SEA-PLM 2019)
“Learning
Poverty”
Major Challenges
• Variable quality of health facilities and services for mothers and young children
• Limited availability of preventive healthcare services for young children after the
first six months
• Limited coverage and variable quality of preventive and curative nutrition
services
• Nutrition supply chain management remains a bottleneck
• Limited availability and variable quality of ECE services
• Limited points of contact for all children 6-35 months old and children 36-59
months old who do not attend early learning programs
• Young children are not able to smoothly transition from home, to preschool, to
kinder, to primary education
• Weak planning, financing and implementing holistic ECCD services, multi-
sectoral coordination and collaboration
• Quality and availability of ECCD services - challenges posed by human resource
management policies on hiring practices, benefits and incentives, competency
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Thank you
