Govt. and UNICEF partner to increase early childhood development budget investment
In a landmark event, marking Policymakers Day of National Early Childhood Care Week 2018, Building Brains, Building Futures, the Sri Lanka Early Childhood Development (ECD) Highlevel Meeting presented early childhood-centric budget proposals to Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera for his consideration in the 2019 national budget.
Investing in health, nutrition, education and protection from birth through to age five – known as early childhood development – enables all children to reach their full brain capacity and is one of the most effective and proven drivers of sustainable economic growth.
The budget proposals focussed on health and nutrition, protection and early childhood education were presented by the Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Women and Child Affairs and Education Ministries, to the Finance and Mass Media Minister for his consideration in the national budget for 2019.
For Sri Lanka, the cost of not investing in critical interventions that ensure a child’s full brain development could be substantial including a generation with poorer health, fewer learning skills and even a reduced earning capacity, resulting in a weaker economy with a greater burden on social welfare systems.
Speaking at the event, UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka Tim Sutton said, “The proposals presented today have the power to transform the lives of children and drive Sri Lanka’s economic growth. Evidence shows that this investment is one of the most cost-effective ways to build this country’s human capital, with a return on investment of as much as 13.7 percent. We urge the Government of Sri Lanka and the Members of Parliament to support this call for national budget investment in early childhood, to ensure that every child in the country reaches his or her full potential.”
The event was attended by University of Oxford Professor of Human Development Prof. Edward Melhuish and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for South Asia Jean Gough among other parliamentarians, ministry officials and members of the diplomatic corp.
The High-level Meeting was organised by the National Planning Department and supported by the UNICEF in partnership with the Finance and Mass Media, National Policies and Economic Affairs, Education, Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine and Women and Child Affairs Ministries and The Parliamentary Caucus for Children and World Bank.
Building Brains, Building Futures, follows a series of sectoral consultations on health, education and child protection, that were held to identify new and additional investment priorities and budget asks for early childhood development (ECD) that the government can make through its national budget for 2019.
In November 2017, UNICEF, together with Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Caucus for Children, organised a Parliamentary Forum on ECD. The forum, led by Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and representatives from ministries underlined the importance of committing to increased investments, leadership, coordination, programme integration, policy coherence and promoting a continuum of integrated ECD services.