Early childhood development continues to be a major challenge. While child mortality and malnutrition have been reduced in most countries, progress has been slower in other aspects of child development, such as cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and motor skills development. The global community is committed to improving early childhood development, which is one of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. What is lacking is a consensus on how to measure child development at scale and especially for the youngest children.

The World Bank, in partnership with the Inter-American Dialogue and the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE), organized a workshop to advance the measurement agenda and build consensus in Latin America on the issue. The workshop gave participants the opportunity to share experiences in the region and to consider recent international measurement initiatives by the hand of experts from the University of Harvard, Nebraska, and Stanford. The workshop was attended by 52 participants from nine different countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay), from the Ministry of Education, Social Protection and Health, the Presidential Advisory Council on Early Childhood, Universities, NGOs and other international agencies.