Macro-Issues in Early Childhood Care and Development: Recent Projects

 Profiles Project (1997-2002) in Jamaica was the first of its kind in the world to look at the readiness of children for primary school and the readiness of school for children. The Project was designed because of concerns about grade repetition and primary school failure. Although international literature suggested a number of reasons for lack of readiness, there was a need to develop an informed basis within Jamaica for intervention strategies for Ministries involved with child well being.

The Project aimed to provide a comprehensive “profile” of the status of children and their learning environments on entry to school to understand the problems fully. The Project phase undertook a longitudinal research study using a national sample of children, followed up by in the post-Project phase by the Jamaican Government in 2003. The process was guided throughout by an innovative inter-institutional steering committee of Ministries and research agencies led by the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

Emerging from the factors identified as affecting children’s developmental outcomes the Project developed indicators of child well being to be put to work in national monitoring systems. The indicators are useful for monitoring trends, setting goals and for providing a steady source of information for planning at several levels (for example through the new Parenting module of the Survey of Living Conditions). In 2005, they will provide a basis for comparison with the Early Years Evaluation (EYE) instruments developed by the World Bank.

 Child Focus II Project (2002-2004), a regional project to strengthen early childhood development, built on earlier work/partnerships with World Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO to include 18 countries in project work in Parenting and the Media, Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development and Leadership and Management in ECD Associations.

Project outputs include a web-based masters degree in ECD Leadership, a framework and curriculum guidance to support learning outcomes in early childhood, a fiscal planning model for the ECD sector based on standards with two country case studies, a strategic planning model for ECD Association and dissemination of research on what makes the difference in parenting in early childhood. IDB member countries are at different stages in taking work forward; the strengthened ECD network in the Caribbean as a whole is making use of learning from the Project.

Child Focus III Project (2005-2006), funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was recently approved for this project which will support ECD capacity building in CDB member states by undertaking work in three areas: implementation of curriculum goals and outcomes; financing and sustainability of ECD; and implementation of policies and regulatory systems for improving the quality of ECD services. Work is proposed in two countries for each of the three areas. The outputs will be disseminated for advocacy and public education purposes related to ECD and parenting.