Monitoring Early Childhood Development at the Population Level: The ECDI2030

Abstract

Population-level monitoring of early childhood development (ECD) can inform research and guide national policy. One approach to population-level monitoring is through the design of surveys that (a) are feasible and cost-effective to implement at scale, (b) yield well-validated summaries of children’s holistic development, and (c) can ideally support comparisons across national and cultural contexts. The Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030) is a caregiver-reported household survey designed to achieve these goals for children aged 24-59 months. This paper describes how the ECDI2030 was developed and provides initial results on its reliability, concurrent validity, and gender equity in nationally representative samples from Mexico (N = 1641) and Palestine (N = 1099). Overall, the results support the use of the ECDI2030 for population-level monitoring, but also suggest that the conceptualization of social-emotional development warrants further attention from researchers. Recommendations are made about statistical analyses that can be undertaken to ensure the quality of data collected from ECD assessments in international settings.