Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
BMJ Glob Health. 2024 Nov 20;9(11):e015991. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015991.
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often dedicate limited domestic funds to expand quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), making complementary international donor support potentially important. However, research on the allocation of international development assistance for ECCE has been limited.
We analysed data from the Creditor Reporting System on aid projects to assess global development assistance for ECCE in 134 LMICs from 2007 to 2021. By employing keyword-searching and funding-allocation methods, we derived two estimates of ECCE aid: a lower-bound estimate comprising projects primarily focusing on ECCE and an upper-bound estimate comprising projects with both primary and partial ECCE focus, as well as those that could benefit ECCE but did not include ECCE keywords. We also assessed aid directed to conflict-affected countries and to ECCE projects integrating COVID-19-related activities.
Between 2007 and 2021, the lower-bound ECCE aid totaled US$3646 million, comprising 1.7% of the total US$213 279 million allocated to education. The World Bank led in ECCE aid, contributing US$1944 million (53.3% out of total ECCE aid). Low-income countries received less ECCE aid per child before 2016, then started to catch up but experienced a decrease from US$0.8 (2020) per child to US$0.6 (2021) per child. Funding for ECCE projects with COVID-19 activities decreased from a total of US$50 million in 2020 to US$37 million in 2021, representing 11.4% and 6.6% of annual total ECCE aid, respectively. Over 15 years, conflict-affected countries received an average of US$0.3 per child, a quarter of the aid received by non-conflict-affected countries (US$1.2 per child).
Although ECCE aid increased significantly between 2007 and 2021, its proportion of total educational aid fell short of UNICEF's suggested 10% minimum. Recommendations include increasing the share of ECCE aid in total educational aid, increasing aid to low-income and conflict-affected countries, and investing more in preparing ECCE programmes for future global crises.
中低收入国家（LMICs）通常将有限的国内资金用于扩大优质幼儿保育和教育（ECCE），因此国际捐助者的补充支持可能很重要。然而，关于 ECCE 的国际发展援助分配的研究一直很有限。
我们分析了援助项目的债权报告系统数据，以评估 2007 年至 2021 年 134 个中低收入国家的全球发展援助用于 ECCE 的情况。通过使用关键词搜索和资金分配方法，我们得出了 ECCE 援助的两个估计值：一个下限估计值，包括主要侧重于 ECCE 的项目；一个上限估计值，包括主要和部分 ECCE 重点的项目，以及那些可能受益于 ECCE 但不包括 ECCE 关键词的项目。我们还评估了针对受冲突影响国家和将 COVID-19 相关活动纳入 ECCE 项目的援助。
2007 年至 2021 年间，下限 ECCE 援助总额为 3.646 亿美元，占教育领域 2132.79 亿美元总拨款的 1.7%。世界银行在 ECCE 援助方面处于领先地位，贡献了 1.944 亿美元（占 ECCE 援助总额的 53.3%）。低收入国家在 2016 年前每儿童接受的 ECCE 援助较少，然后开始迎头赶上，但从 2020 年的每儿童 0.80 美元降至 2021 年的每儿童 0.60 美元。有 COVID-19 活动的 ECCE 项目资金从 2020 年的 5000 万美元降至 2021 年的 3700 万美元，分别占 ECCE 援助总额的 11.4%和 6.6%。在 15 年期间，受冲突影响的国家平均每儿童获得 0.30 美元，仅为非受冲突影响国家的四分之一（每儿童 1.20 美元）。
尽管 2007 年至 2021 年间 ECCE 援助显著增加，但在总教育援助中所占比例仍未达到儿基会建议的 10%最低水平。建议包括增加 ECCE 援助在总教育援助中的份额，增加对低收入和受冲突影响国家的援助，并为未来的全球危机更多地投资于 ECCE 方案的筹备工作。
