摘要：

Over 43 per cent of children under the age of 5 are at risk of not fulfilling their full developmental potential1, due to risks of poverty, poor nutrition lack of access to basic services and early enriching opportunities 2 . Additionally, in a world where prolonged conflicts and emergencies wrought by a changing climate, are increasing, one in 11 children aged 7 and younger have spent the formative early years of their lives surrounded by protracted war and conflict.3 Juxtaposed against this inequity is the invaluable evidence gained from the remarkable advances in neuroscience that show that a child's development (including development of the brain) is fundamentally shaped by its environment in the earliest years of its life. The inclusion of early childhood development (ECD) for the first time on the global development agenda represents a unique opportunity to galvanize efforts around this goal.

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