Early Child Development
Project for International Cooperation
EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Start date: 01/08/2018
End date: 31/07/2022
Description
Improving the chances of life for children is a primary goal for many governments around the world, with various social policies. Considering national agencies, early childhood, for instance, appears in the documents of World Health Organization and World Bank, and “Health for All” (2000) and millennium development goals. The degree in which these policies change or improve the life of children (including those in vulnerable conditions) is a theme for significant research and assessment. Evidence indicates that children, from birth to 5 years old, who are healthy, have bigger chances to become healthy adults (Rossin-Slater, 2015). Programs like universal vaccination, care and education in early childhood, based in high quality centers, nutritional programs for women, babies and children, all of these are beneficial for them. This project has a wide perspective for public health, and will use a holistic approach for preventing diseases and promotion of health. This research involves 4 countries: Brazil, South Africa, United Kingdom and Cuba. Brazil and South Africa are part of peripheral economies and have not reached the same level of social protection or economic progress, seen in the center of capitalist economy, the case of United Kingdom. It is necessary to take it into account, considering the peripheral and dependent condition of Brazil and South Africa in the global capitalist system. The guiding question for this project is: How social, economic, cultural, historic and political aspects impact the chances of life for children in these four countries? The objectives of this project are: 1) understand the social and economic configuration of each of the four countries which are part of this study; 2) define the expressions aspects used in the project (vulnerability, chances of life, impact and family), in order to standardize the comprehension of different uses of the same expressions; 3) understand the relation State-Society and how this relation defines social policies used in each of these countries; 4) map and explore the education of professionals and healthcare services in this field. This project is an agreement with four partners (University of Western Cape, South Africa; Ufes, Brazil; University of Havana, Cuba; and Coventry, UK), to examine the life of children in each country.
