Research 

In Richter, L., et al. (2012). Diagnostic review of early childhood development. Pretoria: Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation & Inter-Departmental Steering Committee on Early Childhood Development 

Child development is a cumulative process and, as a result, investments at younger ages tend to generate higher returns than later investments. Missing the opportunity to invest in ECD, therefore, can lead to significant losses. As ECD is a public good these losses will cost not only the child and their family, but also broader society. Within ECD budgets, investment opportunities focusing on very young children are being missed. Emphasis has been placed on reaching 3-4-year-olds through ECCE centres and 5-year-olds through Grade R, leaving 0-2-year-olds and their families with few services other than health care. Missing such opportunities is a missed opportunity given that the younger the child, the higher the potential returns. Very few studies have examined the impact of ECD services on child outcomes in South Africa. The studies that have been done to report benefits for children, particularly with regard to nutrition and growth outcomes. However, all these studies have been hindered by a lack of objective data. Children are non-randomly assigned to receive ECD services which introduce biases and appropriate measures to control for such biases is limited. 

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