Abu dhabi: Professor Florencia Lopez Boo, Director of Global TIES for Children and Professor of Economics and Applied Psychology at New York University (NYU) in the United States, announced that winning the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning in the Research and Studies category for her research titled 'Research Study to Inform Quality Improvement at Scale in Early Childhood Development Interventions in Low and Middle-Income Countries,' marks a significant milestone for applied research and studies at NYU.
According to Emirates News Agency, the recognition has catalyzed researchers and faculty members specializing in early childhood development to expand the application of such programs globally, leveraging promising initial results from countries like Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. Lopez Boo highlighted that the study and its applied program have contributed to reforms in early childhood policies through the introduction of quality monitoring tools, supporting a research agenda aimed at enhancing care and development services for young children.
The award-winning researcher explained that the home-visiting program originally targeted children from birth to three years of age, reaching 33,190 children across 400 local communities before expanding to approximately 150,000 children. She emphasized the importance of these programs as a foundation for early childhood systems and as an investment in the future. The study's findings could model similar programs in settings where resources for early childhood care and development are limited.
Humaid Al Houti, Secretary General of the Khalifa Award for Education, remarked that the study's recognition underscores the global role of the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning in supporting high-quality research offering practical solutions to challenges related to children's care and development. Al Houti confirmed the Award's ongoing collaboration with the winning researcher to support the Award's mission of creating a positive humanitarian impact worldwide. He added that the Award provides logistical support to enable similar programs to expand into comparable settings globally, benefitting young children, their families, and communities.