Building on the first 1,000 days of life that span from conception to two years of age, the ‘next 1,000 days’ of a child’s life from two to five years of age offer a window of opportunity to promote nurturing and caring environments, establish healthy behaviors, and build on early gains to sustain or improve trajectories of healthy development.

This new two-part Lancet series on early childhood development focuses on the transition to the ‘next 1,000 days’ of the life course, describing why this developmental period matters, identifying the environments of care, risks, and protective factors that shape children’s development, estimating the number of children who receive adequate nurturing care, and examining whether current interventions are meeting children’s needs.

In low- and middle-income countries, an estimated 181 million children 3- and 4-year-olds are not receiving nurturing care, thus jeopardizing their development. The series summarizes the evidence, benefits, and costs of key strategies to support children’s nurturing care and development in this age group, and explores the cost of inaction, finding that the societal cost of not implementing a basic early childhood care and education (ECCE) package at a global level is large, with an estimated foregone benefit of 8–19 times the cost of investing in ECCE.

The series stresses the need to provide access to adequate nurturing care, including equitable access to high quality ECCE, safe and supportive environments with adequate stimulation, protection from physical punishment, adequate nutrition to all children, universal developmental screening, and financial supports for vulnerable populations.

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Speakers: 

Dr. Aisha Khizar Yousafzai, Harvard University

Dr. Amer Hasan, World Bank

Dr. Catherine Draper, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa

Elizabeth Lule, ECDAN

Dr. Günther Fink, University of Basel

Dr. Gwang-Chol Chang, UNESCO

Dr. Milagros Nores, National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) 

Dr. Victor Aguayo, UNICEF