Cuna MaS: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up
2018
This case study from the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) provides a glimpse into Peru’s Cuna Más program for early childhood development, first implemented in 2012 as an initiative of the president. After early success, the program struggled to scale up at the required speed while also maintaining an adequate quality level, facing challenges of over-centralized management, inability to adapt to multiple languages and geographies, and difficulty collecting data to determine the impact of the intervention. The case goes into detail about these barriers to success and the outlook for the sustainability and effectiveness of the intervention going forward. Students reading this case will learn about designing and rolling out a nationwide early childhood intervention.
The case is part of a series produced by the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Case Program, hosted by the HKS Strengthening Learning and Teaching Excellence (SLATE) initiative, the world’s largest producer and repository of case studies designed for teaching about how government works and how public policy is made. Each case in the series is designed to train public leaders, and introduces actual policy dilemmas along with data to equip students to learn how to apply the rigor of quantitative analysis in the real world.
This case may be purchased for a nominal fee; registered educators may obtain a free review copy. Online supplemental resources include short free documents and videos on how to teach with the case method, as well as downloadable related tip sheets and questions for class discussion.
Cuna MaS: Peru's Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as It Scales Up
Source:
Datla A. Cuna Más: Peru’s Early Childhood Program Struggles to Maintain Quality as it Scales Up. HKS Case No. 2115.0. Harvard Kennedy School Case Program 2018. https://case.hks.harvard.edu/cuna-mas-perus-early-childhood-program-struggles-to-maintain-quality-as-it-scales-up.