Welcome to my site! My name is Jan van Ravens, policy advisor.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been one of my main fields of work since 2008. Partly as an independent consultant and partly as an affiliate to the Child Study Center at Yale, I had the privilege and honor to support 30 low- and middle-income countries in their efforts to develop and implement policies for young children. Twelve country reports are posted below, followed by a listing of the 18 remaining countries. If you are interested in one or more reports from the latter countries, please let me know: janvanravens@hotmail.com .

A general observation from the work at country level was that the conditions for progress have been quite favorable between the turn of the century and the outbreak of COVID-19, with (i) high economic growth, not least in low-income countries; (ii) decreasing fertility rates; (iii) substantial reduction of poverty; (iv) accumulation of scientific and experiential knowledge about child development; (v) new insights into the returns on investments in child services, and (vi) enhanced global commitment to human development (MDGs, SDGs).

But progress fell short of expectations. Economic growth in low-income countries expressed itself mainly in attendance of unregistered preschools whereas the expansion of the formal system began to slow down, even globally, around 2015 and came to a standstill in 2017. Moreover, the reduction of Under-5-Mortality began to decelerate around the year 2005, especially in the poorer parts of Africa and Asia.

Under the heading Global Reports (below) you can find analyses of these trends as well as two concrete suggestions to overcome the stagnation. The first concerns the Preschool Entitlement: a locally adaptable policy instrument to expand and improve preschool education. In April 2024, a video presentation of the Preschool Entitlement won the Lightning Talk Contest organized by the Society for International Development.

The second suggestion concerns a governance concept called LAMP: Locally Adaptable Mono-sectoral Policies. LAMP is an occasional name for a widely applied governance concept that can replace “Integrated ECD”. Under LAMP, it is not the national but the local level that decides how to shape and configure public services. This requires that the national level deliver policies that are distinct (mono-sectoral) and locally adaptable. There are good reasons to expect that this will accelerate the expansion of essential child services.