Please note that this site is under construction. We invite you to return to the site after work on the site is completed on February 15, 2009.

• We are a cross-national, inter-agency, multidisciplinary technical assistance team.

• We support countries to build local capacity to measure early child development.

• We use robust, internationally-comparable, and culturally valid measurement tools.

• We assist in the collection, analysis and dissemination of population-level early child development data.

The Consortium’s technical assistance initiative responds to the need for empirical evidence of the status of early child development in both developed and developing-world contexts. This empirical evidence, in the form of valid, population-level data is critical in order to effectively advocate, plan, and fund initiatives that improve children’s health and human development.

The Consortium seeks to build capacity and inform policy by responding strategically to strengths that already exist within the international infrastructure responsible for championing the importance of childhood. Working in concert with this infrastructure, the Consortium’s mission is to:

• Raise the profile of early childhood development.

• Promote the use of population-based early child development measurement tools internationally.

• Further the design and adaptation of early child development measurement tools that will allow international comparison, while still reflecting important country specific cultural and social values.

• Mobilize population-level early childhood development data for policy-making purposes at global, nation-state and sub-national levels of government.

• Build capacity, particularly in developing countries, to monitor child development.