About Programs Fellowship News Calendar
Salzburg Global Seminar, working with select international partners, is developing a multi-year program on the roles of states and families in meeting 21st century social investment needs. Intergenerational and gender justice and inclusion of marginalized populations are critical for social cohesion, but come under particular strain where economic systems are confronting a "double squeeze" - how to improve start of life opportunities for all while also caring and paying for aging societies. In many countries, the greatest burden falls on the family unit: government support, where provided, is inconsistently managed between various levels and branches and seldom reflects forward-thinking best practices. We believe that states and families' abilities to confront these challenges will shape 21st century economic systems, societal norms and individual well-being.
The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) propose an ambitious target for ECDE: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education. To meet this target, it is vital that we begin now to address key questions. What are equitable, quality and scalable practices in ECDE? How can these be rolled out in developing, emerging and developed country contexts?
For decades, Nobel prizewinner James Heckman and others have made the economic case for investments in ECDE as a critical component for national prosperity. As a result, a notable shift has occurred in recent years from debates about whether to invest in ECDE programs, and is now more focused on the questions of how to invest, where to invest, and how to bring quality ECDE programs to scale. The inclusion of universal ECDE programs in the SDG's is a key indicator of this process.
In the context of ECDE's inclusion in the 2015 SDG's, Salzburg Global Seminar proposes to launch a multi-year intervention with select international partners to coordinate and support an integrated early childhood policy and practice agenda, particularly for disadvantaged populations. It aims to augment international efforts to achieve scale through the best available evidence of what is required to achieve access, quality, and scale.
Quality Early Childhood Development and Education for All Girls and Boys
This program produces a strategic roadmap towards supporting universal quality access, as highlighted by the SDGs, in the form of a Salzburg Statement- a synthesis of agreed-upon guiding principles, priority actions, and proposals for urgent consideration. The Salzburg Statement is based on group dialogue and will be fed into subsequent international working groups.
Bibliography
Articles
''The End of Creativity'' by Kevin Ashton, Medium
''The Roma May Be Just What Europe Needs to Recover'' by Jake Flanagin, Quartz
"Time to Focus on the Worlds Youngest Children" by Joan Lombardi, IPS Writers in the Blogosphere
"Open Working Group Proposal for Sustainable Development Goals" United Nations
Reports
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015 by UNESCO
"Investing in Our Future: The Evidence Base on Pre-School Evaluation" by Yoshikawa et al
''Race For Results: Building a Path to Opportunity for All Children'', The Annie E Casey Foundation
