Early childhood, beginning at conception, is a critical time for rapid brain and overall development, significantly influencing health and well-being throughout an individual’s life. Optimal child development is fostered in environments that are biologically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively nurturing. By contrast, suboptimal development can impact long-term developmental potential and outcomes including poorer educational and employment attainment, and lower quality of life.
In 2023, the WHO launched the GSED, a tool designed to assess ECD up to 36 months of age in a variety of cultural contexts. This instrument was crafted to support the evaluation of ECD both at the population and programmatic level.
This project aims to address this need for children aged 0–36 months in Kiribati, a small and widely dispersed island nation in the central Pacific Ocean, by adapting and validating the GSED SF. This study contributes uniquely to the literature as it is the first time that the GSED has been adapted and applied in the Oceania-Pacific region.