Strengthening Colombian Indicators for Protection in Early Childhood

This paper provides an overview of protection indicators developed for Colombia's Intersectoral Commission for Comprehensive Early Childhood Care for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Care Strategy, De Cero a Siempre. De Cero a Siempre Strategy promotes the national public policy to strengthen the realization of rights for children aged 0-6 and is laudable in its holistic approach to supporting children's rights in the early years. The paper provides a context on progress made in strengthening international norms and standards in child protection during early childhood and presents a summary of current frameworks for early years risk and protection indicator development, in particular the un Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comments No. 7 (Early Childhood) and No. 13 (Prevention of Violence). The paper presents a framework of risk and protection indicators, drawing on gcs Nos. 7 and 13, across the first five moments of the lifecycle, and four social environments of home, educational environment (ecd, kindergarten, and school), health environment and public space. The paper also suggests opportunities for community involvement in piloting these indicators. Finally the paper recommends a strategy for Colombian municipalities to incorporate indicators for protection in early childhood, and suggests five specific ways the data gathered from the indicators can be used to strengthen outcomes for children in the early years impacted by De Cero a Siempre policy and its programmes.