A new The Lancet Regional Health – Africa commentary by Richter et al. makes a clear case: Africa’s youngest children will shape the continent’s economic future, yet too many still grow up without the conditions needed to thrive. Drawing on the Countdown to 2030 regional and country early childhood development profiles for Africa, the authors highlight stark disparities – stunting ranges from 12% in North Africa to 40% in Central Africa, while early learning participation drops from around a third to just 6%. Despite progress in reducing risks linked to poverty and stunting, major data gaps remain, particularly on whether children are developmentally ‘on track’. Crucially, the paper emphasises that data must move beyond monitoring to decision making. For scaling, this positions country-owned, standardised data systems linked to planning, budgeting and accountability as a core ingredient for building effective, system-wide ECD delivery. [Summary from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/scaling-early-childhood-development-what-read-month-8k4mc/]