Right now, children, parents, and caregivers are facing what’s been called a “polycrisis”— multiple, simultaneous, interdependent crises resulting in major disruptions to children’s services and family well-being (UNICEF, 2023). Progress on reducing poverty stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an uneven economic recovery is resulting in a rise in inequality (World Bank, 2024). Of the world’s 6.3 billion people, 1.1 billion live in acute multidimensional poverty, and more than half of them are children (UNDP, 2024). For the first time in 25 years, the fight against poverty has lost momentum, and recent cuts to foreign aid threaten to deepen existing disparities.    

The consequences of climate change and environmental degradation are becoming more apparent each year, resulting in displacement; loss of access to vital services in support of early childhood development such as childcare, pre-primary education, and healthcare; and increased risk of disease, malnutrition, and other health-related issues. More than 43 million children were displaced due to weather-related disasters over the last six years, and 242 million students experienced school disruptions in 2024 alone (UNICEF, 2023; UNICEF, 2024). Conflict and war are also on the rise, resulting in more children needing humanitarian aid than at any time since World War II (UNICEF, 2023).

Cuts to official development assistance (ODA) have compounded these crises and will have an immediate, long-lasting, and undeniably devastating impact on the survival and development of children around the world. These cuts follow a downward trend of investment in the early years that is threatening hard-won progress and adversely impacting or closing programs that support all aspects of nurturing care, including critical health, nutrition, early childhood care and education, caregiver support, and child and social protection services.

Even before these cuts, it was clear that financing was not adequate to address the needs of young children and their families (UNICEF, 2023), particularly within vulnerable populations. Too often, the early years have been given a low priority within broader policy development and investment decisions that focus on education, primary health care, nutrition, social and child protection, and other intersecting issues, thereby missing a critical window for intervention and reinforcing silos between sectors. This gap will be even wider now, underscoring the urgent need for integrated, effective, and equitable domestic and global financing to help children survive and thrive during the most critical stage of their development. The need to invest in the early years is particularly important for children with disabilities, given they are 24 percent less likely to receive early stimulation and responsive care and 42 percent less likely to have foundational reading and numeracy skills (UNICEF, 2021).  

Despite rising inequality and the confluence of crises, there is hope. The evidence provides a clear roadmap to address these challenges. Investing in the early years, the most critical time in a child’s development, is one of the best investments a country can make and is vital to developing human capital. High-quality services in support of early childhood development for all children can act as a catalyst for sustainable development by yielding improved long-term outcomes in health, education, and economic development, laying the foundation for future success (Black, Behrman, Daelmans, et al., 2021; Draper, Yousafzai, McCoy, et al., 2024). Investing in early childhood is also a sound economic policy, yielding returns ranging from $6 to $17 for every dollar spent (UNICEF and World Bank, 2016).  

Therefore, the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) partners call on global stakeholders involved in the Financing for Development Conference to recognize that sustainable development starts in the early years and to build financing systems that efficiently and effectively expand access to high-quality services that support early childhood development. 

Specifically, ECDAN urges stakeholders at the Financing for Development Conference to:

1. Make early childhood policies and services eligible for funding through climate financing mechanisms because of their ability to advance mitigation and adaptation strategies by building individual resilience and improving health, education, and livelihood outcomes.
2. Unlock human capital by scaling up global and domestic financing for young children. 
3. Ensure early childhood services are included in Integrated National Frameworks and other domestic financing plans and policies.
4. Break down sectoral siloes and promote policy coherence through a whole of government approach that mainstreams policies and services that target young children (particularly ages 0-3) and their caregivers into “essential public services” such as health, education, energy, water and sanitation, and social protection systems.