As many as 200 million children living in developing countries may not be reaching their full potential.* According to research from CIFAR’s Child & Brain Development program, without adequate nutrition, access to health care and education, and an overall, nurturing environment, a child’s development and future life course can be seriously hindered.
That message is at the heart of a new partnership that aims to build on child development research to help improve early-year conditions for children in Karachi, Pakistan. With seed funding from CIFAR to kick start initial discussions, a new partnership has been formed between the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of British Columbia and the Aga Khan University of Pakistan.
The partnership will build expertise at the AKU in the use of the Early Childhood Development Instrument (EDI)—a survey tool spearheaded by the late CIFAR Senior Fellow Clyde Hertzman that helps identify a child’s early vulnerabilities. This tool—which presently covers 80 per cent of children across Canada—will now be used in 560 schools in Karachi, Pakistan. The partnership will collect information on the conditions of early childhood development in Karachi to support policy and program development.
via A new partnership aims to improve conditions for children in Pakistan | CIFAR Knowledge Circle.