3.3 Closing the gap
What is one of the best ways a country can boost shared prosperity, promote inclusive economic growth, expand equitable opportunity, and end extreme poverty? The answer is simple: Invest in early childhood development” (Nurturing Care for Early Childhood development, 2018, p. 1).
The term, “closing the gap” relates closely to the information on socioeconomic gradients discussed earlier in this module. As you saw, there are big differences between people with lower, middle and upper socio-economic status (a measure of an individual or a family’s economic and/or social ranking) for all kinds of developmental health outcomes. Closing the gap means making big changes to reduce these differences so that everyone does better. This is no small task but we have the evidence to start this work.
The Final Report from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health, Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health (2008). This report includes some important recommendations for countries and agencies around the world.
The Commission recommended that:
- The WHO and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) set up an interagency mechanism to ensure policy coherence for early child development such that, across agencies, a comprehensive approach to early child development is acted on.
- Governments build universal coverage of a comprehensive package of quality early child development programs and services for children, mothers, and other caregivers, regardless of ability to pay.
- Governments provide quality education that pays attention to children’s physical, social/emotional, and language/cognitive development, starting in pre-primary school.
- Governments provide quality compulsory primary and secondary education for all boys and girls, regardless of their ability to pay, identify and address the barriers to girls and boys enrolling in and staying in school, and abolish user fees for primary school.
More than ten years later, the WHO, UNICEF and many other individuals and organizations continue their efforts to “close the gap”. There is a growing recognition that healthy early child development influences well-being throughout the lifespan, and therefore that what happens to the child in the early years is critical for the child’s developmental trajectory. Progress has been made – but there is still much work to be done.
Throughout this module, you have seen that social inequities early in life have far-reaching impacts. You have also seen that early child development services and programs can have profound long-term effects. It is possible to make a difference in the lives of children and ultimately on the development of families, communities and indeed societies.
Does the information and evidence on the developmental health perspective affect your view of work with young children and families?
If so, how will this new outlook affect your work going forward?
You have reached the end of the Developmental Health Module. Researcher transcripts, references, and links related to the module topics are available on the next page.
