Early investment: A key to reversing intergenerational disadvantage and inequity in Aotearoa New Zealand

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Media release

With 30 percent of Aotearoa New Zealand children not having their basic needs met Koi Tū is calling for the country’s investment in the earliest life stages to be stepped up and well implemented.

Dr Felicia Low, head of the Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health at Koi Tū and Dr Johan Morreau, a retired general and community paediatrician and former chief medical advisor at Lakes District Health Board, have produced the evidence brief Early investment: A key to reversing intergenerational disadvantage and inequity in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This brief focuses on the evidential base for policies aimed at reversing intergenerational disadvantage and inequity.

Increased spending on health, upskilling and social support for parents and families over the first 2000 days, starting from conception and continuing through pregnancy and childhood, would be one of the most cost-effective interventions possible, say Dr Low and Dr Morreau.