Getting to Know Your International Contacts

The Global Children’s Initiative, launched Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States.  A project aimed to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil.

Another insight that I gained was that in sub-Saharan Africa, the Zambian Ministry of Education, UNICEF, the University of Zambian and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University has launch the Zambian Early Childhood Project (ZECDP) to collaborate on the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development.  There are over three billion people at risk of becoming infected with malaria, the groups of people who are especially vulnerable to malaria infections are children and pregnant women.  In Zambia, every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria.

In an explicit effort to build an integrated international approach to child survival, health, and development in the earliest years of life, the Center on the Developing Child has launched the Global Children’s Initiative as the centerpiece of its global child health and development agenda.

The Center’s commitment to global work represents both an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent. One essential, cross-cutting aspect of the Center’s approach is its commitment to work collaboratively across disciplines and institutions, drawing together the best and most creative expertise available to achieve the Initiative’s goals.