Add today multiply tomorrow
building an investment case for early childhood education
Highlights
The financing for Early Childhood Education (ECE) is quite low. While countries are investing in early years’ education, the contributions are relatively small, inconsistent, and unsustainable. Investment in early years has a far-reaching impact as it contributes towards the child’s development, readiness for primary schooling and is a key building block for future economic participation and growth.
The ‘Add Today Multiply Tomorrow: Building an Investment Case for Early Childhood Education’ report is a collaborative effort of UNICEF, Education Commission, and the LEGO Foundation, with important contributions from the Education Outcomes Fund. It builds the case for investment in the ECE sub-sector.
The report outlines why investing in ECE is good for children, their families, communities, and societies at large. It shares evidence on the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness of various ECE programmes alongside outlaying the current state of financing and highlighting some innovative mechanisms for financing the sub-sector. The report also documents case studies from eight countries (Bhutan, Cambodia, Jordan, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan) to highlight some of the important, effective, and innovative work being done at the country level on ECE.
To succeed in ensuring better access to ECE for all children, strong advocacy and commitment are needed on part of all stakeholders, including governments, international donors, private funders, civil society etc. We must ADD today to see our investments MULTIPLY tomorrow
