Early childhood development most important human investment: Shakira

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador Shakira on Tuesday called on world leaders to make early childhood development a priority over any other human investment.

"Children's basic needs such as care, nutrition, stimulation need to be a priority... over any other human investment," she said at a press conference here.

"It's a matter of putting children at the center of the social and economic and political debate, and their needs," said the 38-year-old singer from Colombia.

When world leaders meet here Friday to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 economic, social and environmental goals, they are expected to make commitments to improving early childhood development in their own countries over the next 15 years.

Shakira told the audience, "more than 100 million children are out of school and 159 million boys and girls under five are physically and cognitively stunted due to a lack of care and proper nutrition."

"Every year that passes without us making significant investment in early childhood development and initiatives that address these issues, million of kids will be born into the same cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity," Shakira, who is mother to two sons, spoke passionately.

Shakira also spoke about how conflict and violence harmed children's early development. She noted the impact of the Syrian conflict on children, including brothers Aylan and Ghalib Kurdi who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece.

"Children should not pay the price of war," she said. "We need to demand a just exit to this humanitarian crisis because the refugees deserve to have a home."

Also speaking at the press conference were UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and Jack Shonkoff, director of Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child.

Lake touched upon effects of violence on children's early development.

"When a child is subject to violence or abuse whether in the family or from living in conflict situations ... the brain does not develop as well as it could have," he said.

Other factors such as nutrition and brain stimulation through educational activities and play also effected children's development in early life, he added.

"There are 160 million children around the world who are stunted, whose brains are not developing the way they would have if they had simply got more micronutrients," he said. "That is about a quarter of all the children under five in the world."

According to UNICEF, brain development is fastest during early childhood, with nearly 1,00 neural connections happening every second.

For his part, Shonkoff provided an explanation of the biological impact of early childhood trauma on children.

"We know that toxic stress literally creates a weak foundation," said Shonkoff. "The science is telling us they may not consciously remember it but their body remembers it."

Shonkoff said that while it was still possible to address some of these problems later in life, it was much easier to help children develop into health adults if they have a good start to life.

"It doesn't mean that everything is over after the age of three or after the age of five, but it does mean that we have to work harder, we have to spend more money it's more complicated," he said. "We're creating problems that we could have avoided if we had started earlier." Enditem