Starting Strong: Early childhood development in India, a guide for funders and charities

A companion report to Giving in India, the primary goal of this report is to help donors who care about Indian children to understand what the funding priorities are, and to identify organisations they might want to support. It includes a number of key messages for donors. Firstly, donors should consider helping the young: the first years of a child's life are foundational and donors can make a real impact here stopping problems before they develop. Secondly, donors should generously support NGOs to build their own capacity. NGOs working in early childhood development need to be better resourced with the right skills and long-term funding if they are really to achieve transformational change. And thirdly, while India has the world's largest Early Childhood Development programme, there are still many areas where donors can make a difference, for example, supporting initiatives in urban areas, which are commonly overlooked.