New decade, new countries, new goals
By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 7 January 2010
On October 18 2009, Rio de Janeiro drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter during a gun battle between rival gangs in the favela Morro dos Macaco.
SMS text messages flew thick and fast between Bernard van Leer and CECIP to determine whether everyone was safe, if the community center for children we support in the favela was indeed working as a safe haven, and to express solidarity and concern.
Really, how can children learn and development in an atmosphere of such immense violence? Of course they do, but shouldn’t we be trying to address these critical issues in a systemic way?
This incident, amongst many others, was a sobering moment that fed our thinking on critical under-addressed problems children face.
With the new year, the Bernard van Leer Foundation will begin to invest in new goals. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year and share with you these new goals and other important changes we are undertaking.
Reducing violence in young children’s lives
Our first goal in 2010 will be to reduce violence in young children’s lives. We have seen in places like Israel, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico that the traditional work of the Foundation in early learning is severely hampered by violence.
We know from research that witnessing or experiencing violence as a young child is the best single predictor of violence as an adult, and that early experience of violence can permanently impair brain development.
Violence also impacts the youngest children disproportionately. Murder rates amongst children from zero to four are surpassed only by teenagers from 15 to 17.
Surprisingly, the impact of violence on young children is barely on the global radar screen. The UN drafted its very first report on violence in children’s lives only in 2006. This is therefore an area where we can use our existing experience to make a significant contribution.
Scaling quality early learning investments
Our second goal is to scale quality early learning investments. For over 40 years the Bernard van Leer Foundation has been modelling and advocating for early learning investments. Today 41% of children worldwide are in pre-primary school, and the rates of growth in coverage are highest in developing countries.
However, although there is strong global support for taking early learning to scale, it is not always done in a way that is cost-effective and maintains quality. We recently funded research at the Brookings Institute which shows four out of five attempts to create national programs failed to address an increasing gap in equity.
In other words, national pre-primary programs are failing the most disadvantaged kids. BvLF can help answer the question of how to go to scale without losing the quality of the investment. We have experiences in Peru and Poland that already speak to this equity challenge.
Improving young children’s physical environments
Our third goal is to improve the physical environment in which young children live. Young children face a range of health and security problems stemming from poor physical environments. Of the five basic determinants of health, the fifth – physical environments – is the most neglected.
The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of childhood diseases are caused by poor physical environments. The rate is twelve times higher in developing countries. Astonishingly, injuries and AIDS are responsible for an equal proportion of deaths in children under the age of five each year.
We could not find a single international children’s organization focused on improving the physical environments in which children live, even though simple changes in urban development, dwelling spaces or low-income housing can have a huge impact on reducing health and security risks for young children.
These new goals continue the trajectory of the Bernard van Leer Foundation to move from funding individual projects to funding programs. And we continue to focus our efforts in fewer countries for greater effect. The goals will also allow us greater leverage over compelling problems that reduce young children’s opportunities.
Our new geographic focus
We will work to reduce violence, improve security and increase learning opportunities for young children in: Peru, India, the Netherlands, Israel, Uganda, Turkey, Brazil and Tanzania.
We are limiting our engagement on these new goals to these countries in order to achieve greater impact. Concentrating resources will allow us to double our investments in many countries over the medium term.
In addition, over the course of the next two years in selected countries goals pertaining to the transitions and care issue areas will continue. In the Caribbean, Mexico and South Africa we will continue with improving practices of care for the youngest children. In India and Peru we will pursue early learning goals outlined within transitions. In other countries, and globally, we will round off the programs on transitions, care and diversity.
We no longer have the resources to work as widely across the world as we have in the past. We will miss working with many organisations and individuals with whom we have developed long-term relationships. However, we will maintain a presence in every continent, and continue to share knowledge from around the globe.
We are proud of what we have been able to accomplish with partners over the last 60 years in the field of early childhood development. I look forward to working together in the future to make sure that children everywhere are able to realize their innate potential.
