The Early Childhood Development Secretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean is a unique project developed by ALAS and The Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Secretariat seeks to develop research, policies and strategies that help scale up attention programs for children aged between zero and six years old in the region. Its objectives are to identify and promote best practices in early childhood development (ECD); to assist in the identification of adequate monitoring procedures; to identify pilot projects that can be scaled up and adapted to the region’s countries; and, through the Iberoamerican General Secretariat and the Organization of Iberoamerican States, to present specific recommendations to the governments in the next XIX Iberoamerican Summit in Portugal. For this purpose, the Secretariat will incorporate the governments’ point persons who will receive and discuss the recommendations.

This initiative contributes to the achievement of ALAS’ mission to accomplish the implementation of early childhood development public policies as part of the strategies of content development and agreements with the public sector. This is how the Secretariat, by developing content, will present specific recommendations to commit the governments to implement policies that benefit Latin America’s early childhood.

The Secretariat will be led by an advisory board constituted by the top researchers and experts in early childhood education, health, and nutrition and Latin American program development. The Board will support the Program Manager / Technical Advisor to effectively link resources within Columbia University, The Earth Institute, ALAS and, more generally, Latin America, to ensure the successful development of the Secretariat. The office will be located at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and it will be directed by ALAS and this research center.