Validity of Phone-Based Assessment of Early Childhood Development: Evidence from the ECDI2030 Implementation in Nepal.

The Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030) was created as a caregiver-reported measure to monitor progress toward Sustainable Development Goal target 4.2 and inform national policies. Using the ECDI2030 through phone-based administration for remote data collection is expected to contribute to efficient evidence generation, which is especially critical when traditional face-to-face data collection is not feasible. However, the existing evidence for the ECDI2030 and other caregiver-reported ECD measures are exclusively drawn from studies on assessments through face-to-face interviews. To address this, we present data from a validation trial in Nepal, comparing randomly divided computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) groups. The results of our analysis support the concurrent validity of phone-based ECDI2030 while suggesting the need to address challenges in the CATI administration. The current study contributes to the literature on ECD measurement and provides insights into the practical implications of different modes of ECD data collection.