Global Children's Initiative

Unfortunately, I did not hear from either of the individuals who I contacted through the podcasts. Therefore, I explored the Center on Developing Child and found three global initiatives headed by Harvard University.

ZAMBIA

In Zambia, there is little evidence available in relationship to early childhood development, health children’s development and educational outcomes. An international health economist at Harvard University School of Public Health Gunther Fink was studying an ongoing anti malaria initiative in Zambia. In 2004 Gunther Fink began an anti-malaria campaign, in six years the children mortality rate for children under, five dropped by 30%. In order to clearly access the impact of the initiative Fink and his colleagues determined that they needed to access the social emotional, cognitive, health development of the children at the age of 6, prior to entrance into primary school. He determined he needed to utilize an assessment so he could evaluate the long-term effects of the anti-malaria initiative; he would follow the children’s development through out their entire school years. With a colleague at the University of Zambia they had to create a new, assessment, which was culturally appropriate.  
In 2010, Fink and colleagues completed the new instrument and began using it to survey the first cohort of about 2,000 children nationwide. The hope, Fink says, is that some sections of the instrument will be useful for comparisons within Zambia, others for comparisons within sub-Saharan Africa, and still other sections of the survey will permit broader global comparisons. (The project has been carried out in partnership with the Zambian government and UNICEF Zambia.),

(Harvard international global children’s initiative, 2012).

Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância Center

 This is the name of the new Center the first programmatic effort outside the United States for Global Children’s Initiative. Nucleo Ciena Pela Infancia is collaboration between the center, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and the Faculty of Medicine at the University o Sao Paulo and Insper. The project embodies the work of policy makers, civilian leaders, and Brazilian scholars. The goals are to strengthen leadership around early childhood development, build a scientific agenda, synthesize, scientific knowledge.

“A GOOD START” UN BUENO COMIENZO (UBC)

A collaborative project in Santiago Chile, is improving early childhood education through teacher professional development. The project focus is to improve quality to education to four to six year olds especially in the area of language development. The project too is also focused on intervening with critical health areas to improve the attendance and as well as social emotional development. The program hopes to get families involved in their child’s education.

Zambian Early Childhood Development Project, (2012). Global Children’s Initiative. Center on Developing Child Harvard University.

Retrieved from:

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/zambian_project/

Applying the Science of Early Childhood In Brazil, (2012). Global Children’s Initiative. Center on Developing Child Harvard University.

Retrieved from:

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Un bueno comienzo, a good start, (2012). Global Children’s Initiative. Center on the Developing Child Harvard University

Retrieved from: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/ubc/