The OECD Starting Strong series provides an international comparative perspective on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) systems to support countries and jurisdictions in reviewing and designing their policies in this space. As part of the OECD’s long-term strategy to develop ECEC, the reviews discuss the strengths and opportunities of different approaches and provide policy orientations to help promote high-quality and equitable ECEC services. The Starting Strong policy reviews are developed in close collaboration with the OECD’s Early Childhood Education and Care Network, a unique knowledge-sharing platform for national, regional and local policy makers working on ECEC policies.
This eighth volume of the series, Reducing Inequalities by Investing in Early Childhood Education and Care, represents the culmination of the Translating Research into Policies for Quality and Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy review, undertaken between 2023 and 2024. Building on a methodology that aims to translate research into policies, the policy review investigated how ECEC policies can be designed to better support equity and inclusion. The policy review benefited from contributions from members of the ECEC Network throughout the duration of the project. A multidisciplinary group of experts were also at the core of the development of the policy review. Annex A lists the members of this group who contributed to project activities.
The development of this report was guided by Andreas Schleicher and Yuri Belfali and led by Carlos González-Sancho and Stéphanie Jamet, with contributions from Elizabeth Shuey and Andreea Minea-Pic. Chapters were prepared by Carlos González-Sancho (Chapters 2, 6 and 7), Stéphanie Jamet (Chapters 1, 3 and 8), Andreea Minea-Pic (Chapters 5 and 9), Elizabeth Shuey (Chapters 4 and 10) and Pinar Kolancali (Chapters 4 and 5). Statistical analyses were performed by Miguel Ángel Quintero López and Judit Pál. Country notes were prepared by Gemma Coleman and Pinar Kolancali. Anna Machnio and Daiana Torres Lima supported the organisation of project activities. Duncan Crawford provided communication and messaging support. Cassandra Morley edited the report. Sasha Ramirez-Hugues, Kevin Gillespie, Rachel Linden and Sophie Limoges provided support for communication. Graphic design support was provided by Lushomo.
The authors would like to thank Willem Adema, Grainne Dirwan, Kathleen Dwyer, Sharon Goldfeld, Eva Lloyd, Olivier Thévenon and Jasmin Thomas for their reviews of chapters of the report; Nóra Revai, Tali Malkin and Melissa Mouthaan for their contributions to the methodology of the project; David Brackfield, Viktoria Kis, Maxime Ladaique, Erika Lee, Alexandre Lloyd, Pascal Marianna, and Ozge Ozcan Sahin for their statistical contributions.