Why UNICEF wants investment in early childhood development

Worried by the rampant cases of malnutrition and lack of proper care for under 5 children across the country, the United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF), organized a media dialogue for journalists in Kano state to reveal to them the gory face and plight of under 5 children and the need to place the issues of Early Childhood Development (ECD) on the front burner for everyone to contribute towards ending the woes of children.
The two days impactful discussion was also a medium to jaw – jaw with newsmen on how best to report the issues and ensure advocacy that would provide lasting solutions to the plight of children in the country. Our reporter, Tobias Lengnan Dapam writes on the issues that headlined the two days discussion.
For many years now, under five children have been facing various challenges- ranging from malnutrition, infant mortality, violence and many more infant diseases. And often times, governments and its agents entrusted with resources to proffer lasting solutions, paid lip service to such issues, endangering the lives of many more.
This inaction on the part of those in power is contributing to the highest number of under 5 death in the country, leaving the burden of saving the child in the hands of UNICEF and other organisations who have established their presence in every nook and crany of the country
Speaking at the media dialogue forum, UNICEF Education Specialist, Swadchet Sankey said adequate child-care is a critical element of the decent work agenda and investments in professionalization of the early childhood workforce contribute to full and productive employment, especially for women.
She however expressed worry that Nigeria does have the fundamentals in place for a comprehensive approach to ECD, with an integrated multi-sectoral ECD policy, “the key indicators of child development outcomes in the country remain low.
“Current Policy needs to be reviewed to contain current thinking and an improved approach to delivering ECD across various platforms”.
She said “250 million children under five are unlikely to reach their potential because their development has been stunted by stress, lack of early stimulation and poor nutrition”. The effects, she said, will ultimately impact a country’s growth.
“Nigeria is amongst the top 10 countries countributing to 250 million children under five at risk of not reaching their potential. Over 60% of children under five in Nigeria are at risk of not reaching their development potential
“Only 35.6% of children between three and five attended an organized early childhood education programme. 32.7% of children under five were left with inadequate care the week before the survey. 31.5% children under five are moderately and severely underweight.
Speaking further, she said UNICEF’s report on early childhood development, shows that “the period from conception to the start of school opens a critical and singular window of opportunity to shape the development of the child brain”
She added that the rapid brain growth that happens during this period of life is astounding. “At this time, brain connection form at an unrepeated speed, giving shape and depth to children’s cognitive emotional and social development-influencing their capacity to learn, to solve problem and to relate to others. This inturn has significant impact on their adult lives, affecting their ability to earn a living and contribute to their societies and their future happiness. But millions of this world’s disadvantaged children are missing this opportunity.
“A 20-years study shows that children from poor households who received high -quality stimulation at a young age earned an average of 25percent more as adults than those who did not receive these interventions. And yet, governments worldwide spend less than an estimated 2 percent of their education budgets on early childhood programmes”.
She however said the time has come to pick up the pace and transform our knowledge about early childhood development in to investments and developments that supports families, communities and nations. It is time to act because we are losing the potentials of 43 percent of children in low and middle income countries.
Adding to the statistics, the representative of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Omokere Oluseyi said each year more than 267,000 babies die in their first month of life accounting for more than a third of all under-five deaths.
He added that Nigeria records about 756,000 under-five deaths every year (IGME 2012) and that one in every 15 Nigeria children die before reaching age 1 year and one in every 8 do not survive to their 5th birthday.
“Approximately 8.8 million children die in the World annually out of which Nigeria contributes 1m under five deaths and the greatest burden is with Newborn deaths. About 65% of these deaths are attributable to malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, with malnutrition underlying about 50% of them, vaccine preventable diseases and neonatal causes.
He added that all these issues abound owing to inadequate funding for Newborn and child health services. “Low coverage of evidence based high impact Newborn and Child Health interventions. Weak Health System in terms of skilled human resource, availability of quality essential drugs and basic equipment, Community participation and Socio-cultural beliefs as well as Data management and research. High cost of Newborn and Child Health services resulting in huge out of pocket expenditure.
Speaking on early childhood education, the Deputy Director, in Universal Basic Education Council (UBEC), Mayowa Aleshin, said apathy on the part of Policy makers and some government officials to ECCDE/Pre primary implementation affects children’s development, saying that inadequate funding and unqualified personnel affect the quality of the programme.
He also said lack/ dearth of age appropriate books for ECCDE/Pre primary, low quality and inadequate monitoring of ECCDE centres also add to the problems.
As a way forward, he said unit in-charge of ECD programmes at all levels should be strengthened to accommodate more personnel and to have better technical capacity to plan and implement.
He emphasized on the need to strengthen advocacy and sensitization on the importance of ECD as well as on ECD programmes and interventions .
“We need to incorporate cultural norms & practices into ECD interventions that also address religious/cultural barriers and strengthen preprimary teacher recruitment systems, quality and quantity- fostering close links with the teacher production institutions e.g. Colleges of Education to teach at pre-schools.
“If we must “count every child , and make every child count”, we need both speed and quality – this can only be done if we all agree on this course and unite to implement same. Then Nigeria’s children shall survive, thrive and transform to reach their full potential.
“This is the time to scale-up all evidence based child health interventions.”
With the charge by UNICEF, the bulk now lies on the government and other stakeholders to show more concern to issues of under five children in the country and stop viewing such issues with jaundice eye.
Also, many at the court of public opinion believe that if the government should give priority to the children and stop sweeping their issues under the carpet, then the future of the Nigerian child will be brighter than it ever was.