In its annual assessment of the well-being of children, The State of the World's Children 2001, the United Nations' Children's Fund warned that the world is squandering human potential on a massive scale as hundreds of millions of children are floundering in poverty and neglect.
Carol Bellamy, Unicef executive director, said, 'The greatest tragedy is that many decision makers simply don't know how crucial those first three years of life are. But we have made great strides in understanding human development, and we are now certain that those years are vital to everything that comes later.'
According to the report, societies should invest in the early years of childhood because:
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