The 24 articles in this journal offer insight from diverse traditions, policies, programmes and people. Together, they show why we need a person-first approach to caregiving and how we can get there, so that caregivers, children and entire communities flourish.Read More →
This publication is meant to guide the collection of reliable, internationally comparable data on key ECD indicators, the selection of which was informed by the Nurturing Care Framework.Read More →
This WHO guideline provides global, normative evidence-based recommendations on complementary feeding of infants and young children 6–23 months of age living in low, middle- and high-income countries. It considers the needs of both breastfed and non-breastfed children.Read More →
This Concept Note responds to requests for guidance on monitoring implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework. It outlines considerations for developing a national monitoring system and provides examples of illustrative indicators.Read More →
The UNICEF Vision for Early Childhood Development is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It outlines UNICEF’s intent to support an organization-wide approach to child development in the early years of life, drawing on its mandate for child rights, multisectoral expertise, wide on-the-ground presence, and long-standing role as a trusted adviser to governments and partners at national, regional and global levels.Read More →
This WHO-UNICEF report provides principles and approaches to intentionally include the needs and aspirations of children and young people with developmental disabilities in policy, programming and public health monitoring.Read More →
This scoping review aims to identify implementation pathways of Reach Up (RU) and Care for Child Development (CCD) programmes in low- and middle-income countries. The review includes 33 programmes from 23 low- and middle-income countries. A thematic analysis identified 37 implementation strategies across six “building blocks of implementation”: programme emergence, intersectoriality, intervention characteristics, workforce, training, and monitoring systems. Read More →
This collection of interventions and tools, developed by the Family Strengthening Task Force, is designed to offer family strengthening resources for supporting families in humanitarian settings. Resources range from programming interventions and campaigns to evaluation tools and evidence reviews and covers multiple sectors including child protection, gender-based violence, mental health and psychosocial support, education, and nutrition. The information provided here comes from a range of publicly available sources and is subject to change.Read More →
This Progress Report looks back on the first five years since the launch of the Nurturing Care Framework. It reflects on achievements from 2018 to 2023, drawing attention to areas where there has been significant change, as seen primarily through key informants’ perspectives.Read More →
This guidance aims to support USAID missions and operating units in understanding how they can operationalize the Global Child Thrive Act through planning, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating integrated and inclusive approaches to improve early childhood development.Read More →
These articles explore implementation of ‘Reach Up’ in multiple low- and middle-income countries. The papers illustrate how it can be delivered through multiple platforms, including home visits, group settings, and health facility contacts and community outreach. Read More →
This WHO package provides a standardized way to monitor the development of young children up to three years of age. It is a new global solution that will allow countries, programmes and researchers to gather and use data on early childhood development to better invest in services and support for young children and their families.Read More →
This Thematic Brief shows how responsive feeding relies on and supports the integration of all five components of nurturing care into the feeding process. It explains what is meant by responsive feeding and how to create the enabling environments for caregivers to responsively feed their young children.Read More →
Home-based records have a long history, initially used to record proof of smallpox vaccinations in the mid-1800s. Today, more than 163 countries use a form of home-based record, such as antenatal notes, vaccination-only cards, child health booklets or integrated maternal and child health handbooks. This publication recommends home-based records to improve care-seeking behaviours, men’s involvement and support in the household, maternal and child home care practices, infant and child feeding and communication between health workers and women, parents and caregivers. Read More →
Forty-two randomised controlled trials with 15,557 infants were included in the narrative synthesis to determine the effect of early childhood development interventions delivered by healthcare providers (HCP-ECD) on child cognition and maternal mental health.Read More →
This open-access package is designed to provide a standardized method for measuring development of children birth to 36 months of age at population and programmatic levels globally. The GSED measures capture child development holistically through a common unit, the Developmental score (D-score). The package includes the Short and Long Forms, scoring guide, adaptation and translation guide and a technical report that summarizes the creation process of the GSED, the validation methodology and psychometric properties.Read More →
These guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations on parenting interventions for parents and caregivers of children aged 0-17 years that are designed to reduce child maltreatment and harsh parenting, enhance the parent-child relationship, and prevent poor parent mental health and child emotional and behavioural problems.Read More →
This report summarizes the findings of a multicountry study examining the impact of formula milk marketing on infant feeding decisions and practices, which was commissioned by WHO and UNICEF. The research study – the largest of its kind to date – draws on the experiences of over 8500 women and more than 300 health professionals across eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam). It exposes the aggressive marketing practices used by the formula milk industry, highlights the impacts on women and families, and outlines opportunities for action.Read More →
This three-paper series outlines the multifaceted and highly effective strategies used by commercial formula manufacturers to target parents, health-care professionals, and policy-makers. The industry’s dubious marketing practices—in breach of the breastfeeding Code—are compounded by lobbying of governments, often covertly via trade associations and front groups, against strengthening breastfeeding protection laws and challenging food standard regulations.Read More →
This advocacy brief makes the case that investing in early childhood development is a climate-change friendly investment. It presents the problem, the case for making investment, suggested actions, and efforts underway. Read More →
