New Lancet Series: Early Childhood Development and the Next 1000 Days
This two-part Lancet series on early childhood development focuses on the transition to the ‘next 1,000 days’ of the life course, describing why this developmental period matters, identifying the environments of care, risks, and protective factors that shape children’s development, estimating the number of children who receive adequate nurturing care, and examining whether current interventions are meeting children’s needs. More.
Responsive Caregiving: Conceptual Clarity and the Need for Indicators
This article from The Lancet unpacks the term "responsive caregiving" and provides examples of how it is universal and how the presence or absence of responsive caregiving impacts children’s development. The authors underscore the need to develop responsive caregiving indicators and set out processes for developing such indicators. More.
Nepal Introduces WHO/UNICEF Care for Child Development Course
"The Government of Nepal is deeply committed to investing in the early years of life, recognizing that nurturing care lays the foundation for a child’s lifelong health, learning and well-being," says Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, director of Nepal's Family Welfare Division at the Department of Health Services. The Ministry, with support from WHO Country Office for Nepal, has introduced the WHO/UNICEF Care for Child Development course for the first time in the WHO South-East Asia Region. More
Measurement of ECD in Eastern and Southern Africa
In October 2023, over 140 participants from 18 countries across Eastern and Southern Africa met in Kigali, Rwanda. At the four-day meeting, participants were updated on available measurement tools and indicators that are important for ECD (e.g., GSED, ECDI2030, and AIM-ECD); exchanged experiences measuring ECD at population, programmatic and individual levels; and defined actions to strengthen the measurement agenda at country level.
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Nurturing care for children living in humanitarian settings
This report undertaken by the Global Health Cluster sought to understand the challenges and opportunities for ensuring children living in humanitarian settings receive nurturing care.
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• Webinar series: Strengthening Nurturing Care in Humanitarian Response
1: The Science Behind Caring for Young Children: Strengthening Nurturing Care Approaches to Achieve Better Health Outcomes
2: Programming in Action: Nurturing Care Integrated into National Health Systems
3: Discussion with Health Cluster Coordinators: Institutionalizing Nurturing Care in Humanitarian Health Interventions
Impact of Climate Change Across the Life Course
Articles: Three articles summarising the available reviews on the impact of climate change on maternal and newborn health, child and adolescent health, and older people, which together take a life course approach to optimal development and healthy ageing. More.
Publication: This report aims to provide a comprehensive ‘stocktake’ of the impacts of climate change on children across six major hazards that impact their health and well-being: extreme heat, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms, air pollution and ecosystem change. More.
Course: This free, online course is based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) training package on children's environmental health. This course will help health workers to protect children’s health from pollution and climate change. More.
PATH ECD Knowledge Hub
This knowledge hub compiles national documents, assessments, job aids, training materials, and quality improvement tools, developed by PATH in collaboration with government and partners across Eastern and Southern Africa, to support the promotion of nurturing care for early childhood development through existing health and nutrition services. More.
AfECN Publishes New Compendium for Parents and Caregivers
In September 2024 AfECN and partners published The Compendium of African Initiatives to Support Parents & Caregivers of Adolescents and Young Children. It provides a summary of key findings, learnings and recommendations from 28 parenting programmes, and is designed for policy and decision-makers, as well as development partners, civil society organisations and implementing organisations. More.
Nurturing Care for Faith Leaders
The Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK), in partnership with the Catholic Relief Service, has developed scripturally-referenced guidelines for ECD advocacy by religious leaders and theologians from different faith communities. More.
Ahlan Simsim supports 1,000,000+ children
Ahlan Simsim is the world’s largest early childhood development program in a humanitarian setting. It has now reached more than one million children with direct services across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. More.
Bebbo app
This free app developed by UNICEF and national partners is designed to lend a helping hand to parents, with easy tips on topics like breast pumps, baby weaning, learning, toys, child protection and much more. The app is available in 14 languages and can be used both online and offline. You can download it for free for both Android and iOS. Find out more here.
Children in Humanitarian Settings
Nurturing care can mitigate risks for young children in humanitarian settings and support them to have a healthy development. But, in humanitarian settings, our youngest children are being left behind. Moving Minds Alliance provides you with the facts and solutions to turn this situation around in a series of thematic briefs:
1) How the youngest children are left behind in humanitarian response
2) The developing brain in crisis contexts
3) Nourish the body, nourish the bond: early care and nutrition in emergencies
4) How early childhood development in emergencies promotes gender equality.
