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Early Childhood Development

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Early Childhood Development (ECD)

EDUCATION & SKILLS

Investing in the early years is one of the smartest things a country can do. Early childhood experiences have a profound impact on brain development – affecting learning, health, behavior, and ultimately, lifetime opportunities.

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New evidence on how human capital is formed shows that homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces play a central role in shaping people's health, skills, knowledge, and experience.

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https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/human-capital-report

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Investing in the early years is one of the smartest things a country can do to eliminate extreme poverty, boost shared prosperity, and create the human capital needed for economies to diversify and grow. Early childhood experiences have a profound impact on brain development – affecting learning, health, behavior, and, ultimately, productivity and income.

Yet today, millions of young children are not reaching their full potential because of inadequate nutrition, lack of early stimulation, learning, and nurturing care, and exposure to stress adversely affecting their development.

The challenge is substantial:

In low- and middle-income countries across the world, 148 million children under the age of five are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential because of poverty and stunting (or low height for age).

Worldwide, nearly half of all three to six-year-olds are not enrolled in pre-primary education. In low-income countries, just one-in-five children has access to preschool.

There are 17.5 million child refugees and asylum seekers and another 25.8 million children internally displaced, exposing them to the kind of stress that can undermine their development.

Around the world, over 40 percent of children below primary-school-entry age – or nearly 350 million children – need childcare, but do not have access to it.

Smart investments in foundational learning , the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development of young children – from before birth until they transition to primary school – are critical to put them on the path to jobs and greater prosperity, help countries be more productive, and compete more successfully in a rapidly changing global economy.

A large body of evidence confirms that if we invest in high-quality programs that support children’s health, nutrition, and early learning, we can improve learning outcomes, and ultimately increase adult wages and productivity.

Strategy

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In response to evidence showing the benefits of investing in young children, as well as growing demand from countries, the World Bank is increasing its support of early childhood development (ECD) initiatives around the world through financing, policy advice, technical support, and partnerships at the country, regional, and global levels.

The 2018 World Development Report “Learning to Realize Education’s Promise” highlights three approaches:

Targeting mothers and their babies with health and nutrition interventions during the first 1,000 days, a critical period of brain development.

Increasing the frequency and quality of stimulation and opportunities for home learning to improve cognitive, socio-emotional, and language development.

Ensuring high-quality childcare centers for young children and preschool programs for children 3 to 6 years old.

The World Bank leverages experts from education and skills development, nutrition, health, and social protection to build an evidence base, so that countries can craft cost-effective programs that fit their needs. The World Bank is contributing to global knowledge around early childhood, highlighting new scientific evidence, building on existing findings, and proposing pathways for implementation of early childhood development at-scale .

Expanding measurement is a key pillar of the Bank’s Human Capital Project and its efforts to reduce learning poverty. We are dramatically scaling up our efforts to measure early childhood outcomes and the quality of early learning environments; building country capacity; and working towards the generation of globally comparable data on early childhood development, learning, and education quality. By taking a more coordinated and strategic approach across countries, the World Bank can improve and scale up ECD measurement globally, fill current knowledge gaps, and promote cross-country learning and synergies.

The World Bank team has developed a suite of tools to measure childhood development and early learning quality, including the Anchor Items for Measuring Early Childhood Development , a core set of items for measuring preschoolers’ early literacy, early numeracy, executive functioning, and socioemotional development; Teach ECE , an observation tool that captures the quality of teacher-child interactions in preschools; and COACH , an initiative to improve in-service teacher professional development and systems to accelerate learning.

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View All Projects

Read@Home Initiative

read@home initiative

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Too many children are growing up without books. Only 2 percent of children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa are growing up with three or more children’s books in their homes. The Read@Home Initiative aims to change that.

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Read@Home

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/read-at-home

Through the Read@Home initiative, the World Bank is working with governments and other partners to expand access to quality reading and learning materials, reduce the cost of procuring and distributing books, and support parents and caregivers from the most vulnerable households to engage with their children’s learning.

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Small Books, Big Futures: How Families in Eswatini are Reading Together

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2026/01/12/small-books-big-futures-how-families-in-eswatini-are-reading-together

With only 2% of children owning three or more books, the Read@Home pilot - led by the Ministry of Education with World Bank support - set out to close the early literacy gap in Eswatini. By providing age-appropriate books in SiSwati and English, caregiver coaching, and teacher training, the initiative reached over 700 children across four communities.

Preschool and childcare

preschool and childcare

The World Bank's support for early childhood development includes ensuring high-quality childcare centers for young children and preschool programs for children 3 to 6 years old.

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From Vision to Impact: Preschool Enrollment Soars in Morocco

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/09/24/from-vision-to-impact-preschool-enrollment-soars-in-morocco

Through the Improving Early Childhood Development Outcomes in Rural Morocco and Education Sector Support programs, the World Bank has helped the country expand access to quality preschool services.

Mongolia: A Good Start in Life Begins with Quality Primary Education

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2017/07/28/a-good-start-in-life-begins-with-quality-primary-education

A project in rural Mongolia provided a home-based school preparation program to help 5-year-old children with limited or no access to early childhood education get ready for school.

Nutrition

nutrition

For every dollar invested in addressing undernutrition, a return of $23 is expected. These economic benefits far outweigh the costs of inaction. Nutrition interventions in early childhood have far-reaching impacts on human capital and long-term economic outcomes.

Community Nutrition Program Advances Child Development Outcomes

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/03/08/a-ten-year-program-to-combat-chronic-malnutrition-in-madagascar

In Madagascar, where more than 50 percent of children are stunted, the National Community Nutrition Program reaches 2.1 million mothers and children under five years of age, delivering growth-monitoring activities, cooking demonstrations, and nutrition education. As part of a pilot program, families are receiving additional visits from community health workers who teach parents about the importance of early childhood stimulation. The results thus far show that intensive counseling, combined with nutrient supplements, could be an important intervention in Madagascar.

Peru Halves Child Malnutrition Rate Through Targeted Support

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2018/04/18/fighting-malnutrition-in-peru

In 2007, 28.5 percent of Peruvian 0-5 year old children suffered from chronic malnutrition. With support from the World Bank and other donors, Peru strengthened its conditional cash transfers and the supply of health and nutrition services to target low-income families with young children. In just seven years, the country cut its chronic malnutrition rate in half, to 14 percent, one of the most successful achievements in improving child nutrition in the world.

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More Results

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all?displayconttype_exact=Results&lang_exact=English&qterm=early%20childhood%20development&srt=lnchdt

From 2014 to 2024, 31 million children worldwide were enrolled in quality preschool education through the World Bank’s investments in early childhood.

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​In Uzbekistan, preschool enrollment rose from 0.7 million to 2.44 million after the World Bank Group increased its investments in Early Childhood Education in Europe and Central Asia.

Early childhood interventions benefited 14 million mothers and children in Senegal between 2020 and 2024.

Investments in Children’s Early Years: Creating Brighter Futures

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2025/06/30/investments-in-children-s-early-years-creating-brighter-futures

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Shaping the Future: Building Foundational Skills through Early Childhood Education and Inclusive Learning in Europe and Central Asia

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2025/04/15/building-foundational-skills-through-early-childhood-education-and-inclusive-learning-in-europe-and-central-asia

Combining Childhood Education and Nutrition to Cultivate Bright Futures in Senegal

https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2024/04/09/combining-childhood-education-and-nutrition-to-cultivate-bright-futures-in-senegal

More Research & Publications

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/search?spc.page=1&f.topic=Education::Early%20Childhood%20Development,equals

Publication

Screen Time in Early Childhood Education: Balancing the Digital Scales

By applying the evidence-based approaches described in this report, we can help ensure that young children experience the potential benefits of digital innovation while preserving human interactions, play experiences, and opportunities for discovery that lay the foundations for lifelong learning and development.

https://www.bancomundial.org/es/programs/educacion-america-latina-caribe/publication/el-tiempo-frente-a-la-pantalla-en-la-educacion-infantil

Read Full Report

GUIDANCE NOTE

Designing and Building Environmentally Sustainable, Play-based Early Learning Spaces

Practical guidance for designing and building early childhood physical learning environments (PLEs) that are conducive to quality early childhood care and education.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/8d4b2abd-1807-4173-826e-07880b6da2e3

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Strong Starts, Strong Futures: How Today's Investments in Children Build and Skill Tomorrow's Leaders

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2025/11/18/strong-starts-strong-futures

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View all Immersive Stories

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all?lang_exact=English&displayconttype_exact=Immersive+Story&topic_exact=Education

Every child counts: Measuring early childhood development in fragile contexts

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/Every-child-counts-Measuring-early-childhood-development-in-fragile-contexts

See all Blogs

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/search?qterm=%22early%20childhood%20development%22

See all Feature Stories

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all?displayconttype_exact=Feature+Story&lang_exact=English&qterm=%22early%20childhood%20development%22

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Early Learning Partnership (ELP)

Early Years Fellowship

Engaging Policymakers in Early Childhood Program

Global Financing Facility

Global Partnership for Education

Institute of Medicine

Inter-American Development Bank

Scaling Up Nutrition

Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund

The Early Childhood Development Action Network

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Education and skills training are the bridge between human potential and economic opportunity.

Learn More

EXPLORE EDUCATION & SKILLS FOCUS AREAS

Data & Measurement

Digital Technologies in Education

Financing Education

Foundational Learning

Fragility, Conflict & Violence

Girls’ Education

Inclusive Education

Skills & Workforce Development

Teachers

Tertiary Education

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