WATCH VIDEO Nurturing care for early childhood development – an overview This 15-minute recorded presentation introduces nurturing care for early childhood development. The presenters describe the science that informs the concept of nurturing care, present the Nurturing Care Framework, and reflect upon its implementation. This is one of a series ofRead More →
In preparation for a series of national multisectoral workshops across the Middle East in 2021, the World Health Organization and UNICEF prepared seven presentations in Arabic. The presentations address the rationale for investing in ECD, the situation for young children globally and in humanitarian settings, and demonstrate how to use the Nurturing Care Framework as a tool to support country-level decision-making and action. Read More →
This short-animated video is the fourth in a series focusing on self-care interventions during COVID-19. It provides practical guidance for women and children who may be experiencing violence and what they can do to seek help and support.Read More →
This situational analysis presents evidence on ECD service delivery, challenges, and opportunities to support the development of a comprehensive strategy and enabling environment for the equitable expansion of quality ECD sector services in Kosovo.Read More →
This special supplement of the journal Indian Pediatrics explores how policies, programmes and initiatives within India are promoting nurturing care for ECD. Read More →
The ECD Workforce Hub is intended to advance the wellbeing of children and families by strengthening the capacity of the ECD workforce to deliver high-quality programs and policies. Read More →
This Thematic Brief summarizes why nurturing care is essential for all newborns and uses the five components of nurturing care to describe what every newborn needs to survive and thrive. The Brief includes practical examples of creating nurturing environments for newborns, including those who are born to soon, small or sick, in India, Sweden, The Philippines, Colombia and Lebanon. Read More →
In humanitarian response, practitioners often use humanitarian standards and sector-specific guidelines to standardize the planning, implementation, and evaluation of programming. While there have been some analysis of humanitarian standards and guidance, to our knowledge there has been no comprehensive review that analyzes existing humanitarian standards and guidance documents to identify alignment with ECD. To fill this gap, this study reviews 15 existing humanitarian standards and guidance documents and assesses the extent to which early childhood interventions and the needs of infants, young children, and caregivers are included.Read More →
This report summarizes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurturing care for early childhood development based on the latest available data and proposes priority actions and interventions required to safeguard this critical period and ensure children’s optimal development during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also showcases UNICEF Country Office initiatives supporting early childhood development across the five components of nurturing care.Read More →
In light of COVID-19 restrictions, USAID Momentum and its implementing partners needed to modify delivery of the ‘First Steps Intera za Mbere’ programme, which enables caregivers with children aged 3 years and under to promote nurturing care. Following a phone survey to understand caregiver attitudes, knowledge and practices, they adapted the programme to be delivered via radio. This brief describes the adaptation process.Read More →
‘Reach Up and Learn’ is a home visiting program that supports caregivers of children 0-3 years old in 18 countries. In response to the Syrian refugee crisis, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) adapted this model to train refugee and host community workers on how to promote opportunities for early learning and responsive caregiving in visits to caregivers of young children in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.Read More →
This report highlights examples of the International Rescue Committee’s ECD programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, including brief summaries of programmes in Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa. The report’s main focus is on Bangladesh where IRC worked with in-country partners to support pregnant and lactating women living in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps and surrounding communities with raising healthy and thriving infants.Read More →
Starting in 2018, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and local partners took advantage of the growing interest in strengthening support for investment in ECD as part of Peru’s public policy agenda. This case study describes how the Care for Child Development approach was used at national and local levels, specifically how it was adapted for use in Peru’s Growth and Development Check-ups Programme (CRED in Spanish). Read More →
This study was a two-arm, randomized controlled trial set in high volume, public tertiary care units in Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The babies in the immediate kangaroo mother care group started the intervention as soon as possible after birth and got an average of 17 hours per day in the Mother-Newborn ICU. In the control group, kangaroo mother care was started only after the baby was stable, with babies receiving KMC on an average of 1.5 hours per day while in the neonatal ICU. After clinically stable, babies in both the study groups received kangaroo mother care (about 19 hours/day) as recommended by WHO guidelines.Read More →
The authors describe the process of selecting nurturing care indicators at the municipal level from existing routine information systems to develop the Brazilian Early Childhood Friendly Index (IMAPI). Read More →
The ‘Responsive Interactions for Learning’ course aims to develop practitioners´ understanding of responsive interactions and increase their ability to coach these interactions with caregivers. This blog post describes how the course was developed, where it has been used (Canada, Chile, Brazil), and learnings.Read More →
This paper proposes a comprehensive, multisectoral, multilevel lifecourse conceptualisation of human capital development by building on the Nurturing Care Framework. Read More →
The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office, in collaboration with UNICEF, organized a 3-day virtual meeting to promote nurturing care for early childhood development. The meeting brought together participants from 11 countries, with participants including government delegates from relevant ministries (health, nutrition, education, child protection, women and child affairs), WHO and UNICEF staff and partners. Read More →
The Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) has more than 33,000 members across the country and is one of the largest professional associations of pediatricians in the region. In 2019, the President wrote about the important role pediatricians play in bridging science and parenting. Building on this, the IAP, working closely with the World Health Organization and UNICEF, have continued to draw attention to the important role pediatricians can play and are developing materials to support their practice. Read More →
Life-saving services such as safe childbirth, immunisation, and nutritional rehabilitation ensure children in conflict settings survive. But surviving is not enough. If we want children to thrive in all aspects of their life, they not only need good health and nutrition, they also need to feel safe and secure, have opportunities to play, and be cared for responsibly. We call this nurturing care. Health care practitioners have a pivotal role to play. Find out how in this video.Read More →
