This guidance note aims to catalyse country-level dialogue and action around health service delivery and systems strengthening, while also outlining complementary actions by other sectors. It is the first in a series to help with operationalization of the Nurturing Care Framework.Read More →
This brief from the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatrics Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation explains the strategies, lessons learned, and way forward to ensuring nurturing care for children affected by HIV in Tanzania’s Tabora region.Read More →
This report, one year after the launch of the Nurturing Care Framework, summarizes concerted efforts at national, regional, and global levels to disseminate the Framework and identify entry points in the health sector and beyond for implementation.Read More →
A recent paper in The Journal of Nutrition recommends: “Expanding conceptual models of child development to include the 5 components of the Nurturing Care Framework”, and says: “…health and nutrition alone may not be sufficient if children do not experience the learning opportunities, responsive caregiving, and security and safety that are part of the Nurturing Care Framework.”Read More →
The evidence for combined interventions is growing! In this systematic review and meta-analysis of early life interventions, the authors found that interventions that resulted in effects on linear growth (e.g., nutritional supplementation) were not significantly associated with effects on cognitive, language, or motor development scores. To ensure benefits for linear growth and neurobehavioural development we need to go beyond nutritional supplementation programming and include interventions targeting caregiving behaviour and learning opportunities that support the development of cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional skills.Read More →
This overview of the NCF identifies avenues for innovation and collaboration in harmony with the field’s clinical, scientific, and advocacy agendas. One avenue involves enhancing the alignment between health systems and human rights. A second avenue involves neurodisability professionals engaging with nurturing care as leaders, partners, and implementers.Read More →
Understanding donor, government and out-of-pocket funding for early child development (ECD) is important for tracking progress. This paper, published in the British Medical Journal’s Archives of Disease in Childhood, aims to estimate a baseline for the Nurturing Care Framework, with a special focus on childhood disability.Read More →
Writing for the Daily Maverick, Director of Advocacy Aid Patricia Martin-Wiesner argues that achieving South Africa’s development vision in the next 25 years is possible if the country’s leadership prioritises the inclusive and equal development of children. Nurturing care is a formula for transformative, inclusive growth and development.Read More →
“Nurturing a child’s development today, to have an intelligent, creative and productive adult tomorrow, is increasingly the focus of every parent and pediatrician,” writes Dr Digant Shastri, National President of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), in the journal Indian Pediatrics. IAP is currently working with UNICEF to produce guidelines for its members.Read More →
Using analysis structured according to the Nurturing Care Framework, this paper from BMJ shows that more efforts are needed to reduce inequalities in exposure to poverty, stunting, home stimulation and early education, in order to improve early childhood development. More investments are needed to improve and expand measures relevant to ECD in LMICs.Read More →
A new WHO guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on improving early childhood development through interventions that support responsive caregiving and early learning. Evidence shows that early childhood development is an outcome of healthy, nurturing interactions between caregivers and children, and as such, the guideline focuses on the needs of both the caregivers and young children.Read More →
This paper from the Maternal and Child Survival Program on behalf of the Child Health Task Force takes an in-depth look at “thrive and transform” interventions — such as uptake of nurturing care — in relation to child survival interventions. It focuses on three African countries: Kenya, Senegal and Zambia, with further examples from Ghana and Rwanda.Read More →
The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS has produced a brief on what donors, policy makers, implementers and civil society can do to deliver integrated support for children and adolescents affected by HIV and AIDS. Those who face social and structural exclusion must be prioritised if we are to achieve HIV targets and broader SDGs. The most vulnerable are beyond the reach of mainstream services – that must change. Combining services and support in a comprehensive programme achieves far more and uses fewer resources. The Nurturing Care Framework can transform the life course of these children.Read More →
One year after the launch of the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank Group, the ECD Action Network and the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health are thrilled to share a summary of where and how the Framework has madeRead More →
This brief, published by the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatrics Foundation (EGPAF) and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, explains the strategies, lessons learned, and way forward for enhancing existing health services in Tanzania’s Tabora region, to ensure nurturing care for children affected by HIV. You can download the brief here. Learn moreRead More →
This brief, published by the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatrics Foundation (EGPAF) and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, describes how health services are used as entry points to ensure nurturing care for children affected by HIV. You can download the brief here. Learn more about EGPAF’s HIV and ECD work here. RelatedRead More →
This guidance note was prepared by staff from WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank Group, the ECD Action Network and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. It specifically targets the health sector and aims to catalyse country-level dialogue and action focusing on health service delivery and systems strengthening whileRead More →
Published in the Journal of Public Health (February 2019), “The effect of a community-based, integrated and nurturing care intervention on early childhood development in rural China” explores whether attention to nurturing care can promote developmental health and reduce developmental delays. The community-based program was implemented in four counties of China,Read More →
The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative is a global, multi-sectoral effort to produce new knowledge and equip decision-makers with tools and resources to support the development of a quality early childhood workforce at scale. Writing for the project’s website, Kavita Hatipoglu and Michelle Neuman make the point: “The practitioners who workRead More →
The 2018 monitoring report for the Every Woman Every Child global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health provides updates on progress towards the Survive, Thrive, and Transform goals, which were set out in the 2016-2030 global strategy. The report recommends implementing the Nurturing Care Framework as the first strategicRead More →
