When discussing child development in Pakistan, a certain number frequently comes up. 41 percent. Compared to what they might have become with full health, full education, and a truly fair start, that is how productive a child born there today can anticipate being by the time they turn eighteen. It’s an impressive figure. The worst part is that during the messy, formative, invisible years between birth and age five, a large portion of that gap quietly opens up before a child ever enters a classroom.
The chair of the Early Childhood Peace Consortium, Dr. Rima Salah, has spent years witnessing lawmakers recognize this fact but do not take immediate action. She cited the well-known but still underappreciated statement made by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan during a Commission on the Status of Women session: “No development tool is more effective than educating girls and empowering women.” That was stated by Annan in 2005. You’d think the world had embraced it by now, twenty years later. The evidence seems to indicate otherwise.
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Core Framework | Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as a tool for human development and peacebuilding |
| Key Global Conventions | Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979); Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989); Beijing Declaration (1995) |
| Pakistan Human Capital Index | A child born today can expect to be only 41% as productive as their full potential by age 18 |
| Stunting Rate (Pakistan) | Over 40% of children under 5 are stunted — worst among comparable income-group countries |
| Preprimary Enrollment | Fewer than one-fifth of preschool-age children in Pakistan are currently enrolled |
| Learning Poverty Rate | Expected to rise from 75% to 79% due to COVID-19 learning losses |
| Leading Voice | Dr. Rima Salah, Chair of the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) |
| OMEP World President | Mercedes Mayol Lassalle — advocate for shared responsibility in early education |
| UN Secretary-General Quote | Kofi Annan, CSW 2005: education of girls is the most effective development tool |
| Sustainable Development | Directly linked to UN SDG 4 and SDG 5 — Quality Education and Gender Equality |
It’s easy to forget how closely related gender equality and early childhood investment are. They are not concurrent problems operating on different tracks. The kind of responsive caregiving that literally shapes a child’s developing brain is difficult for a mother under psychosocial stress, destabilized by a pandemic or by economic precarity. A girl who is denied an early education eventually develops into a woman who lacks agency. The cycle doesn’t end on its own. The OMEP World President, Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, made this connection very clear: in order to achieve gender equality, everyone must have equal access to education, and this work must start in early childhood rather than adolescence or university enrollment.
Frameworks have been around for many years. In 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was ratified. Ten years later came the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Through the mid-1990s, international gender policy was influenced by the Beijing Declaration. These were not insignificant events; they brought about significant, quantifiable shifts in the way that institutions viewed women and children. However, Dr. Salah is cautious not to let this advancement lead to complacency, pointing out that many women and children are still denied rights due to their identity, socioeconomic status, location, or migratory status. There is scaffolding. There are still huge gaps.
In ways that are still being calculated, the COVID-19 pandemic made matters worse. Gender-based violence reports rose. Forced and early marriages increased. The instability of those years shattered whatever shaky support systems were in place for millions of families, especially in low- and middle-income nations. In areas like rural Pakistan, it’s possible that a whole generation of kids will bear the cognitive and developmental costs of that disruption for decades—not as numbers, but as diminished lives.
Listening to advocates in this field gives the impression that the evidence supporting early childhood care investments is no longer being disputed. The research is unambiguous. One of the most economical ways to lessen inequality and enhance life outcomes is to invest in the early years. The distribution of resources and political will are still up for debate. Because the values a child internalizes between the ages of two and six do not go away, Lassalle contends that educators and caregivers need to be prepared to teach gender perspectives from an early age. They move forward.
Ironically, the years that are most important to human development continue to be among the least funded, least visible, and least politically rewarding to invest in. Youngsters under five do not cast ballots. In many places, their mothers have little political clout. However, the benefits—such as decreased poverty, smaller gender disparities, and healthier societies—are perhaps more long-lasting than those of practically any other public investment. Someone should be moved by the Pakistani data alone. Stunting affects 40% of children under five. Less than 25% of students were enrolled in pre-primary school. The rate of learning poverty is expected to reach 80%. These numbers are not abstract. In the early years of a person’s life, these futures are quietly foreclosed upon, year by year.
