New Zealand gets 'A for Average' rating in its commitment to early childhood

For immediate release
7 May 2009

In commemoration of Mother's Day, Save the Children has released its 10th annual State of the World's Mothers, which focuses on the link between investing in early learning opportunities for young children and school success.

The report shows that New Zealand has met six out of ten key benchmarks of suggested minimum standards for early childhood development in wealthy countries. Sweden tops the wealthiest countries in its commitment to early childhood development meeting all ten key benchmarks, while Australia only meets two, and Canada and Ireland come last meeting just one benchmark.

The areas that New Zealand does not meet the minimum requirements are:

• Parental leave of 1 year at 50% of salary

• 1% of GDP spent on early childhood services

• Child poverty rate less than 10%

• Near universal outreach of essential child health services

"Comprehensive early childhood development programmes, starting in infancy, can put millions of children worldwide on the path to school success," said Philip Abraham, Acting Executive Director of Save the Children New Zealand. "The links between good health and nutrition and healthy brain development have been well documented. However, today in New Zealand nearly one quarter of our children live in poverty. Also, New Zealand's income inequality remains higher that the average OECD."

The State of the World's Mothers report also presents the annual global Mothers' Index which lists the best and worst places to be a mother. New Zealand comes in sixth place among the top ten best places with Sweden ranking first, followed by Norway, Australia, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. Among the bottom 10 places: Niger ranks last, followed by Sierra Leone, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Sudan, Angola, Eritrea and Djibouti.

The report also features the first-ever School Success for Developing Countries index of 100 developing nations ranking how well-prepared their youngest children are to succeed in school. Cuba and Armenia lead at the top of developing countries and are followed by Cyprus, Chile and Azerbaijan. Children face the greatest obstacles to thrive at school in Chad, followed by Afghanistan, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Mali.

"Good child care is an extension of good parenting," said Mr. Abraham. "It is in the best interest of New Zealand, and the world, to invest in the early years to ensure that our children grow into adults that positively impact our society".

To view the full report please visit www.savethechidren.org.nz

Notes to the editors:
The report lists five recommendations in order to address the early childhood development challenge of ensuring that children around the world are looked after during these important formative early years.

• Invest in better health care for mothers and young children especially the poorest and most marginalised mothers and children in every country.

• Provide coaching and information to help mothers and fathers give their young children the best possible chance to succeed.

• Improve training and support for early child care providers and preschool teachers.

• Expand early learning opportunities for children affected by AIDS, conflict and natural disasters.

• Increase government support for proven early childhood development solutions around the world.

ENDS

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