Date: 10 March 2021
Venue: Online

ARNEC hosted a webinar series entitled 'Nurturing care for young children: seeking solutions for addressing disparities heightened by the impact of COVID-19'. Their aim was to mobilise the ECD community in the region, particularly practitioners, policy makers, and advocates at the country level, to share local and/or country-level solutions that adapt nurturing care practices for ECD to the current realities and long-term effects of COVID-19.

This was the third webinar in the series and focused on the status and solutions in promoting responsive caregiving for young children in the Asia-Pacific region during and beyond the pandemic. A special emphasis was made on building resilience and the positive bond between caregivers and young children through playful parenting in support of pandemic recovery in the home and community.

The following questions were explored:
1. How do countries and governments strengthen their parenting programs and interventions to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, both short- and long-term?
2. What evidence have we generated to elevate the role of play to support home-based ECD interventions as part of pandemic recovery and to support policy change?
3. What have we learned about parenting education interventions during the pandemic and how do we use these experiences to inform recovery strategies and ECD investments?
4. What evidence-based resources and tools are available to support parents and caregivers as they engage their young children in home-based developmental practices?

Panellists:
1) Dr Jamie M. Lachman, Department of Social Policy & Intervention, University of Oxford / University of Glasgow
2) Dr. Dipu Shakya Education Specialist, UNICEF Nepal
3) Sandipan Paul, Education Specialist, UNICEF Pacific

Moderator: Shikha Jain, Technical Advisor in Plan India and ARNEC Steering Committee member (Core Team Representative)
Time