Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39572050›Full record

ArticleBMJ global health2024

Global development assistance for early childhood care and education in 134 low- and middle-income countries, 2007-2021.

Yiqun Luan, Dominic Hodgkin, Jere Behrman, Alan Stein, Linda Richter, Jorge Cuartas, Chunling Lu

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Article in BMJ global health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Yiqun LuanHeller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7275-1848
Dominic HodgkinSchneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4494-9176
Jere BehrmanDepartment of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7835-6283
Alan SteinBlavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8207-2822
Linda RichterDSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3654-3192
Jorge CuartasDepartment of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-3298
Chunling LuDivision of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA chunling_lu@hms.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4780-9451

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionLow- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often dedicate limited domestic funds to expand quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), making complementary international donor support potentially important. However, research on the allocation of international development assistance for ECCE has been limited.

methodsWe analysed data from the Creditor Reporting System on aid projects to assess global development assistance for ECCE in 134 LMICs from 2007 to 2021. By employing keyword-searching and funding-allocation methods, we derived two estimates of ECCE aid: a lower-bound estimate comprising projects primarily focusing on ECCE and an upper-bound estimate comprising projects with both primary and partial ECCE focus, as well as those that could benefit ECCE but did not include ECCE keywords. We also assessed aid directed to conflict-affected countries and to ECCE projects integrating COVID-19-related activities.

resultsBetween 2007 and 2021, the lower-bound ECCE aid totaled US$3646 million, comprising 1.7% of the total US$213 279 million allocated to education. The World Bank led in ECCE aid, contributing US$1944 million (53.3% out of total ECCE aid). Low-income countries received less ECCE aid per child before 2016, then started to catch up but experienced a decrease from US$0.8 (2020) per child to US$0.6 (2021) per child. Funding for ECCE projects with COVID-19 activities decreased from a total of US$50 million in 2020 to US$37 million in 2021, representing 11.4% and 6.6% of annual total ECCE aid, respectively. Over 15 years, conflict-affected countries received an average of US$0.3 per child, a quarter of the aid received by non-conflict-affected countries (US$1.2 per child).

conclusionAlthough ECCE aid increased significantly between 2007 and 2021, its proportion of total educational aid fell short of UNICEF's suggested 10% minimum. Recommendations include increasing the share of ECCE aid in total educational aid, increasing aid to low-income and conflict-affected countries, and investing more in preparing ECCE programmes for future global crises.

Indexed as

Developing CountriesChildChild CareChild, PreschoolCOVID-19Global HealthHumansInternational Cooperationchild healthpaediatrics

Identifiers

PMID39572050
PMCPMC11580267

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