Early Childhood Care and Education across Development Contexts: A Comparative Review of Policies, Access, Quality, Equity, and Learning Outcomes in Developing and Developed Countries

Abstract

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is a key investment in human development with profound consequences for educational equity, social mobility and economic productivity. Although world leaders have pledged to achieve universal access to quality ECCE by 2030 (SDG 4.2), significant inequities remain between developed and developing countries in terms of policies, financing, access, quality, and learning outcomes. This integrative review aims to provide a broad overview of ECCE systems in 18 countries, combining evidence from the peer-reviewed literature from 2015-2025. This review systematically examines ECCE governance, public investment, enrolments, curriculum and pedagogy, teacher qualifications, infrastructure, equity (gender, disability, poverty, and rural–urban disparities), parent participation, assessment and child development outcomes to identify key gaps and cross-contextual lessons. It was found that developed countries (Finland, Sweden, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and South Korea) have high enrolment rates (70-95%) and significant public expenditures (1-2% of GDP), but developing countries (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa) suffer from low enrolment (20-45%), low public financing (0.1-0.5% of GDP), teacher shortage and poor infrastructure. The evidence shows that quality ECCE has an impact on school readiness, especially for children from disadvantaged groups; but there are inconsistent levels of quality coming from systemic constraints. This review shows that integrated policy changes are needed to ensure financing equity, workforce development, quality assurance mechanisms and targeted interventions to marginalised groups, in order to achieve SDG 4.2. The results have implications for policy makers, international organizations and researchers who support the promotion of quality early childhood development for all children as a basis for lifelong learning and sustainable development.