Early Childhood
Studies show that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have an average learning deficit of five months when they enter nursery school compared to children from wealthy backgrounds. By the end of high school, without appropriate action, these pupils show a learning deficit of up to 18 months.
Why we prioritize the youngest children
People often call early childhood the formative years – with good reason. This is when children’s brains are growing most quickly. Adverse experiences, such as multidimensional poverty or instability, hamper development and can negatively influence life outcomes many decades later.
As infants, we need to develop the cognitive and social skills that underpin our ability to learn, solve problems, interact with others and form healthy relationships. If this process is disrupted – which can easily happen due to poverty and deprivation – children can suffer a permanent setback in their development.
An excellent example of a wrap-around approach to supporting infants and their families comes from our US-based partner Room to Grow. It provides comprehensive support to families during their child's first three years with personalized parental coaching, essential baby and toddler items, and connections to community resources.
High "social return on investment"
Pioneering academic research, notably by Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, has shown that early interventions – if sustained – can have a major positive impact on children’s later development.
This is the key reason why we now devote almost half our budget to programs that target disadvantaged children up to the age of six and their parents.
Our early childhood strategy
We base this area of our work on four pillars:
- Social support for parents to build self-confidence, empower them and connect them with their community
- Material support for parents to meet their children’s needs
- High-quality learning environments at home, in daycare and at school to encourage early progress
- Innovative research to develop better interventions and influence public policy
25 Projects in 2025
11 Countries in action
€1.5m Funding in 2025
A group that is often forgotten
Working with our partners is helping us understand which approaches work best. However, the value of early childhood interventions is not widely appreciated. This means these programs receive little public funding and do not figure as a priority for most philanthropic organizations.
This creates an opportunity for us and other likeminded organizations to make a meaningful contribution to increasing social mobility.