The conversation on early childhood education and development (ECED) continues to gain momentum, helped by our increasingly informed and coordinated approaches to championing human capital development and addressing stunting. The government has led the way with launching the “First 1,000 Days” movement in 2013 — and its recent emphasis on one-year preschool education as the minimum standard for regional governments. The government also launched a National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention in 2017, committing an estimated US$14.6 billion to converge nutrition intervention across 416 regencies and 98 cities. This created many opportunities for diverse stakeholders to contribute to and complement ECED efforts. According to the Health Ministry, approximately 30.8 percent of Indonesian children under 5 suffer from stunted development, an improvement from 37.2 ...

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