Investing in socio-emotional skills during early childhood to achieve capabilities and fight poverty: overcoming socioeconomic vulnerabilities in Brazil through Criança Feliz

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss early childhood social-emotional development as a means to achieve capabilities and reduce poverty and inequality. Social-emotional skills provide the necessary cognitive tools to support individuals during choices and decisions that will affect socioeconomic status. Therefore, the connection between the socio-emotional skills approach and the capabilities must be established. When developed and mastered, the social-emotional skills improve opportunities and promote new capabilities to achieve desirable results (capabilities to function). If this development starts during early childhood, it ensures the right to exercise agency power, improving future economic results. For that reason, developing these skills in disadvantaged populations is a necessary condition to promote freedom and equality of opportunity, ensuring inclusive socio-economic development. The goals of "Programa Criança Feliz" (PCF), an early childhood social-emotional development program for disadvantaged children launched in October 2016 in Brazil, are analyzed in this paper through the connection between socio-emotional skills and the capabilities approach. This program integrates public policies that reduce the weakness of will and provide skills to overcome socioeconomic vulnerabilities in Brazil. Therefore, this paper contributes through the analysis of PCF, and the connection of the development of socio-emotional skills during early childhood to achieve capabilities and fight poverty.