The Cost Of Inaction For Young Children Globally

The Cost of Inaction for Young Children Globally is the summary of a workshop hosted by the Institute of Medicine Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally in April 2014 to focus on investments in young children and the cost of inaction. Participants explored existing, new, and innovative science and research from around the world to translate this evidence into sound and strategic investments in policies and practices that will make a difference in the lives of children and their caregivers. This report discusses intersections across health, education, nutrition, living conditions, and social protection and how investments of economic, natural, social, and other resources can sustain or promote early childhood development and well-being.

Focusing on young children in a global context is an approach to end the cycle of poverty and improve the well-being of nations. Improving well-being necessarily begins with core elements such as health, education, nutrition, and social protection; many efforts to improve child development in the first decade of life focus on areas to meet young children's basic needs. Young children living in low-resourced settings are vulnerable to developmental and educational risk factors, such as stunting and undernutrition, disease, caregiver depression, lack of access to quality preprimary and primary education, disabilities, poverty, and societal and familial violence. While each of these areas is important for children's growth and development, there are potential increased benefits from integrated programs and coordinated policies that address more than one of these areas simultaneously, particularly for children living in low-resourced communities. An integrated and coordinated "all system" approach may be the best way to guarantee that children will have the prerequisites for healthy development. The Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally was established with the goal of integrating knowledge with action in regions around the world to inform evidence-based, strategic investments in young children, birth through age 8. The forum held nine workshops across five continents over 3 years. The goal was to learn from experiences in multiple regions and engage in culturally embedded dialogue. This publication summarizes the key themes from the presentations and discussions of the workshops.

This report summarizes a joint workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council with Fundacao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal in November 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The workshop presentations and discussions highlighted efforts made to scale program investments across health, education, nutrition, and social protection that aim to improve children's developmental potential. Speakers explored four topics around scaling up program investments: impact, scalability, sustainability, and governance. Participants shared their experiences scaling up programs and implementing early childhood services into a comprehensive national policy. Scaling Program Investments for Young Children Globally synthesizes up-to-date evidence on effective programs and interventions in Latin America and other regions, including an account of their strengths and challenges. This report highlights the presentations and discussions of the event.

In January 2014, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, in collaboration with the IOM Board on Global Health, launched the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally. At this meeting, the participants agreed to focus on creating and sustaining, over 3 years, an evidence-driven community of stakeholders that aims to explore existing, new, and innovative science and research from around the world and translate this evidence into sound and strategic investments in policies and practices that will make a difference in the lives of children and their caregivers. Financing Investments in Young Children Globally is the summary of a workshop hosted by the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally in August 2014. This workshop, on financing investments for young children, brought together stakeholders from such disciplines as social protection, nutrition, education, health, finance, economics, and law and included practitioners, advocates, researchers, and policy makers. Presentations and discussions identified some of the current issues in financing investments across health, education, nutrition, and social protection that aim to improve children's developmental potential. This report explores issues across three broad domains of financing: (1) costs of programs for young children; (2) sources of funding, including public and private investments; and (3) allocation of these investments, including cash transfers, microcredit programs, block grants, and government restructuring.

With the worst human refugee crisis since World War II as the backdrop, from March 16 through March 18, 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in partnership with UNICEF and the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), held a workshop in Amman, Jordan, to explore topics related to investing in young children for peaceful societies. Over the course of the workshop, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, funders, youth, and other experts came together to understand the effects of conflict and violence on children, women, and youth across areas of health, education, nutrition, social protection, and other domains. The goal of the workshop was to continue to fill in gaps in knowledge and explore opportunities for discourse through a process of highlighting the science and practice. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

To examine the science, policy, and practice surrounding supporting family and community investments in young children globally and children in acute disruptions, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in partnership with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from July 27-29, 2015. The workshop examined topics related to supporting family and community investments in young children globally. Examples of types of investments included financial and human capital. Participants also discussed how systems can better support children, families, and communities through acute disruptions such as the Ebola outbreak. Over the course of the 3-day workshop, researchers, policy makers, program practitioners, funders, young influencers, and other experts from 19 countries discussed how best to support family and community investments across areas of health, education, nutrition, social protection, and other service domains. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

This publication in Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics is led by two renown psychiatric physicians specializing in Disaster Psychiatry, Trauma, and International Psychiatry for children and adolescents: Dr. Paramjit Joshi and Dr. Lisa Cullins. The audience for this clinically focused resource includes: Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists -Clinical physicians or research PhDs; Mental Health Nurse Practitioners and all Nurses; International Aid Organizations; Religious Counselors; and Psychology Counselors. Each Author in this publication is recognized expert in their own right, who cover topics such as: Bullying: A Global Approach to Prevention; Challenges in Providing Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services in Low Resource Countries; Child Soldiers; Wealth, Health and the Moderating Role of Implicit Social Class Bias from a Global Perspective; Developing Mental Health Services for child and adolescent psychiatrists after an Earthquake; . Nuclear Disasters; Children Displaced by War: Impact on the Psychological Well-being; Global Perspectives on Teaching and Learning about child and adolescent psychiatry; Partnering and Collaborating for the Word's Children.