Maternal and child health and nutrition play crucial roles in child development. This webinar showcased the extraordinary findings from South Africa’s Birth to 30 (Bt30) cohort, which has helped researchers understand physical growth, body composition, maturation, and the many factors that contribute to these biological processes.

This webinar, the first in a series on health professionals and formula milk marketing, was brought to you by the World Health Organization (WHO), The BMJ, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and Children in All Policies 2030 (CAP2030).

This was the first in a series of global webinars on ECD and climate change from the Early Childhood Regional Networks – AfECN, ANECD, ARNEC and ISSA and Global Early Childhood Network ECDAN.

This ARNEC conference aimed to bring about strong awareness among policy makers and practitioners of the substantial threats young children are facing due to the multiple crises that are affecting them, i.e., COVID-19, climate change and environmental degradation.

This virtual regional conference aimed to develop a common understanding of evidence-based solutions and further commitment towards supporting parents and caregivers of children and adolescents.

This meeting brought together over 140 participants from 18 Eastern and Southern Africa countries. Participants included government delegates from relevant ministries, national statistical offices, academia, WHO and UNICEF staff and partners.
The meeting concluded with the development of country-specific action plans to strengthen monitoring and evaluation of ECD.

WHO presented the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development. Sheila Manji and Giorgio Tamburlini spoke about the importance of nurturing care for ensuring children and thrive. Giorigo provided examples from the Italian context on how they have operationalized the Nurturing care framework and are now working to strengthen the capacity of the workforce.

This ECDAN webinar aimed to help demystify the basic concepts of climate change, as well as processes like the UNFCCC, Conference of Parties (CoPs) and relevant frameworks like the Paris Agreement, 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for DRR.

In this webinar, a part of the COVID-19 Learning Series, the hosts (ECDAN) shared results from a scoping review on the nature and scope of the existing early childhood development evidence related to components of nurturing care for young children, including health, nutrition, child protection, opportunities for learning, and responsive caregiving.

The Hilton Foundation and Stellenbosch University presented an interactive webinar discussion on the challenges faced by young mothers, and potential solutions to provide them with effective support.