These “Country Profiles for Early Childhood Development” are developed by UNICEF in collaboration with Countdown to 2030 Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health. The profiles are an attempt to compile, in one place, the available data for country and cross-country monitoring and to provide a baseline against which progress can be monitored.Read More →
These “Country Profiles for Early Childhood Development” are developed by UNICEF in collaboration with Countdown to 2030 Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health. The profiles are an attempt to compile, in one place, the available data for country and cross-country monitoring and to provide a baseline against which progress can be monitored.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 →
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 →
This paper proposes a comprehensive, multisectoral, multilevel lifecourse conceptualisation of human capital development by building on the Nurturing Care Framework. Read More →
This paper explores the experiences of neonatal health care providers caring for small and sick newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey in three languages was used to collect data on COVID-19 preparedness, effects on health personnel and on newborn care services, including kangaroo mother care, as well as disruptors and solutions. There were 1120 responses from 62 countries, mainly low and middle-income countries.Read More →
This paper finds considerable inconsistency in guidance documents from 33 countries regarding breastfeeding and newborn care. None of the guidance documents reviewed recommended all aspects of WHO guidance. In this paper, health care providers from 62 countries share their experiences of caring for small and sick newborns during the COVID.-19 pandemic.Read More →
This case study describes how the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) worked with national and local stakeholders in the Syrian public health system, and in particular the Child Wellbeing programme. Read More →
This Thematic Brief makes the case that ensuring children affected by HIV survive and thrive requires applying a nurturing care lens to routine maternal, newborn and child health services, as well as, HIV prevention and care services.Read More →
In 2016, the Government of Ghana reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring children in the first 1000 days had every opportunity to survive and thrive. To this end, the Government of Ghana dedicated personnel and put in place coordinating mechanisms to ensure all children received nurturing care from birth. This brief describes the actions taken in the health sector between 2016 and 2019, championed by the Government of Ghana, to elevate attention to and services for children aged 0-3 years. Read More →
This series considers new scientific evidence for interventions, building on the findings and recommendations of two previous Lancet series on child development (2007, 2011), and proposes pathways for implementation of early childhood development at scale. The series emphasises ‘nurturing care’, especially for children below three years of age, and multi-sectoral interventions starting with health, which can have wide reach to families and young children through health and nutrition.Read More →
The Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) Ghana Early Childhood Development (ECD) 0–3 programme (2016-2019) aimed to promote opportunities for early learning and responsive parenting at the community level via frontline health workers to increase caregiver knowledge and practice.Read More →
