Early childhood development: Why Kenya should urgently scale up investments in quality ECD services

By Prof Amina Abubakar and Dr Anil Khamis

Early childhood development (ECD) is the foundation upon which a child's future is built. It encompasses a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth during the first eight years of life, beginning in the mother’s womb.

When the child is in the mother’s womb, his or her hearing, vision, emotional control, and language begin to develop rapidly. Upon birth, the child becomes part of a family and community. At this stage, social skills and ways of responding become critical. This then continues as children crawl, walk, and talk while interacting with their environment and engaging with health, education, safety and security services. Learning and development continue as the child transitions from the comfort of home to pre-primary education.

These first eight years of life, therefore, present a ‘window of opportunity’ to nurture a child's full potential. Children who benefit from quality ECD programmes demonstrate better cognitive skills such as improved language, problem-solving, and critical thinking. They develop strong social and emotional skills with greater empathy, self-regulation, and positive relationships. These children are also better prepared for formal education or ‘readiness for schooling’, and are likely to enjoy improved livelihood prospects across their lives.

From an economic perspective, the benefits of investing in ECD are clear. Every shilling invested in ECD has a rate of return far exceeding any other investment. Any smart investor, particularly parents and governments, stands to gain from directing their resources towards ECD. The returns are guaranteed!

Looking at the nation and society, the benefits of providing good quality ECD include the availability of a well-educated and healthy workforce, lower rates of rehabilitation measures, and more peaceful communities. All the ingredients for the growth and development of a country; the human capital with a creative and problem-solving ability, and those who welcome challenges with an open and empathetic attitude to serve others as well as themselves, are fostered during the early years of a child’s development.

In low and middle-income countries, such as Kenya, investing in quality ECD services is not only critical but also urgent. A significant number of children under the age of eight live in poverty, are affected by malnutrition, have limited access to healthcare, and are exposed to unsafe environments – all of which severely hinder a child’s holistic development, with long-term consequences that spill over to adulthood.

Considering the above, Kenya has made progress in certain investments across health and education that put us on the right track towards optimal ECD outcomes.

Kenya’s national development plan and subsequent policies, including the Health Act and the Children’s Act, acknowledge the importance of providing the nutrition required for children to grow optimally, the need for mothers to have prenatal and antenatal care, and for requisite vaccinations and immunizations to protect pregnant mothers, the unborn child, and the newborn, from preventable diseases.

The policies have led to the development of integrated ECD plans at the county level and to many partners – governmental and civil society – to lead campaigns on the provision of good ECD services. Supporters and donors have also provided training, capacity-building feeding programmes, and healthcare services to some of the neediest in society.

There is, however, a need for more investment that we must commit to or at least scale up as a country to be able to provide a good start to all children and build a foundation for a bright future for our nation.

To begin with, we need increased investments channelled towards empowering communities and caregivers. Learning starts long before the child enters school or goes to an ECD centre. Caregivers and communities are the children’s first teachers.

At home, children learn how to play, collaborate, and cooperate with their peers and caregivers. We need to empower caregivers and communities to be able to provide their children with opportunities for learning right from the beginning. This will increase the likelihood of a smooth transition to school and better educational outcomes in the long run.

Good quality ECD also requires caring for the caregiver– whether parents (the primary carers), teachers (who are the next carers) or other responsible adults. Some of the areas for critical investments for caregivers include mental health services and support, economic empowerment, especially in the most vulnerable sub-groups of the population, and increased access to key services and facilities.

Investing in training, remunerations, well-being and better schemes of services for ECD teachers will empower them to provide high-quality learning opportunities for children at the ECD centres.

Secondly, there is a need for increased investment in pre-primary education. Available resources are not appropriately directed. The bulk of the funding is provided to secondary and higher education, with the least amount dedicated to pre-primary education.

More privileged learners progress to secondary education and subsequently higher learning. Those who drop out are likely from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds such as the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) of Kenya; those with limited ECD services, including antenatal care; and those whose lives face devastating effects from multiple crises, such as persistent drought, insecurity, and loss of livelihoods.

Thirdly, we need increased investments to address the needs of the urban population. As Kenya undergoes rapid urbanisation and its accompanying challenges across housing, water access, sanitation and pollution, we are seeing increased health and well-being vulnerability of children, in what is termed a poly-crisis.

Our most vulnerable children, whether in ASAL areas or in urban informal settlements, face compromised developmental outcomes, with some communities recording worsening indicators in terms of child health, nutritional status, and cognitive capacity. The damage caused to children lasts through their lives and also affects subsequent generations. Not addressing these challenges as an urgent matter will let the existing inequities continue and reproduce across generations in ways that will damage our society.

Fourthly, we need data. To make evidence-based programming decisions, develop well-informed policies, and monitor the impact of investments in ECD, we need reliable and comprehensive data. By leveraging on various online platforms and technological advancements, we can ensure sufficient data across different domains of ECD are captured continuously and cost-effectively.

Finally, children’s rights, conferred by the Kenya Constitution, must be safeguarded. Practically, this means to protect them from violence, exploitation, and abuse.

Quality ECD programs are indisputably a smart investment for the individual child, the country, and the region. The evidence is also clear: There is an immediate need to provide country-wide, well-coordinated multi-sectoral service provision for all children. This is a commitment Kenya made to the world a decade ago in 2015 at the United Nations in signing the declaration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Good quality ECD services for all leads us to an equitable, just, and caring nation for all citizens.

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The research informing this article is from The Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development that is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge with direct relevance for policies, programmes, and practices that enhance life experiences at all stages of human development.

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ProfAminaAbubakar is theDirector of theInstituteforHumanDevelopment,TheAgaKhan University, and Dr Anil Khamis is a Senior Researcher at the same institute