This review aimed to deepen understanding of the effects of COVID-19 on nurturing care on young children in the Kenyan context. The review draws on empirical evidence from previous pandemics and epidemics, and anecdotal and emerging evidence from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The review proposes program and policy strategies to guide the re-orientation of nurturing care, prevent the detrimental effects associated with deteriorating nurturing care environments, and support the optimal development of the youngest and most vulnerable children. Read More →

The tool aims to help Ministries and government agencies reflect on the ways in which they can support personnel delivering home visiting programs across sectors for pregnant mothers and caregivers with children under 3. Drawing inspiration from the UNICEF Pre-Primary Diagnostic and Planning Tool, this tool is intended for countries with home visiting programs at either the sub-national or national levels. The scope of this tool includes home visitors who work directly with young children and their families, as well as supervisors and trainers.Read More →

This guide offers practical tools for country programmes and stakeholders to support advocacy for improving newborn and maternal health and preventing stillbirths. It is especially important in countries with a high burden of newborn and maternal mortality. The document is by no means exhaustive but aims to provide a repository of quick reference and examples to the user. The toolkit shows how to undertake advocacy and communication in various national and local contexts, particularly in support of the global Every Newborn initiative, providing a wide range of options for outreach and advocacy activities tailored to specific audiences. It includes key messages on newborn and maternal health, as well as examples of letters to policymakers, briefs, press releases, social media content and other relevant materials to make the case for improving the quality of care and scaling up newborn and maternal health interventions.Read More →

The Breastfeeding Advocacy Toolkit is intended to ensure stakeholders are able to easily access and use advocacy tools aimed at improving policies and financing for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding. The Toolkit is an initiative of the Global Breastfeeding Collective. Led by UNICEF and WHO, the Collective is a partnership of over 20 international organizations with the goal of increasing investment and policy change to support breastfeeding worldwide, which requires advocacy at the global, national, and sub-national levels.Read More →

This advocacy toolkit, produced by Plan International in partnership with A World at School and the Youth Advocacy Group of the Global Education First Initiative, has been developed for young people, by young people. Packed full of ideas, tools and inspiring stories, the resource helps children and youth to effectively advocate for their right to an education. Though intended for advocates in the education sector, the processes, tools, and stories can be leveraged to further advocacy efforts in other sectors.Read More →

Results show that well-designed and implemented advocacy programs work. This guide draws from lessons learned and best practices from a multi-year regional nutrition advocacy initiative in Southeast Asia. The effort was focused on improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) policies specifically,but the results and lessons learned are relevant for a broad range of public health advocacy efforts.Read More →

Learn how to use social media as an advocacy tool. The Global Breastfeeding Webinar Series offers training to breastfeeding advocates on how to utilize social media to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. Created in the lead-up to World Breastfeeding Week in August 2018, the Webinar Series is intended for program managers, advocates and communicators who understand the need to boost the quantity and quality of content on breastfeeding.Read More →

UNICEF has an exceptional history of advocating to protect and promote children’s and women’s rights. The Advocacy Toolkit stems from this, systematizing and coordinating both internal and external advocacy expertise, as well developing a few innovative approaches. The Toolkit provides a set of practical tools to help UNICEF staff and partners in the development and management of their advocacy work.Read More →

Advocacy can happen at local, sub-national, national, regional, and global levels. Here, we provide resources to help you with the “how”. The materials listed include guides, practical tools, and examples of best practice to help you develop and advance your advocacy efforts. Read More →

Dietary guidelines provide advice on what to eat but often do not take into account “how” to eat. Responsive feeding is a key dimension of responsive parenting, involving reciprocity between the child and caregiver during the feeding process and is characterized by caregiver guidance and recognition of the child’s cues of hunger and satiety. Evidence indicates that providing responsive feeding guidance to mothers on how to recognize and respond appropriately to children’s hunger and satiety cues can lead to improved feeding practices and weight status and developmental outcomes among infants and young children. Providing nurturing care to children has indeed been identified as a global priority but the feeding dimension remains untapped, in part, as a result of a lack of clear responsive feeding guidelines during the first 1,000 days of life.Read More →

Roma are the most marginalized and disadvantaged population in Europe, reports the European Public Health Alliance. The International Step by Step Association, in cooperation with the European Public Health Alliance, the Romani Early Years Network, the Institute for Development Policies (Romania) and Skola dokoran (Wide Open School-Slovakia), have made several strategic recommendations to ensure every child gets the good start in life they need, based on the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development. They seek to address disparities in access to health, housing, income, social and early childhood development services for vulnerable Roma children, focusing on the crucial period between birth and 3 years of age.Read More →

Joan Lombardi, Director of Early Opportunities, and Shannon Rudisill, Executive Director of the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, have written an article on nurturing care for Grant Makers in Health. They write: “Promoting nurturing care is now becoming a global movement. …there is growing interest from philanthropy and civic leaders at all levels to assure all children get off to a good start with equal opportunities. …These developments, along with the emergence of a vision provided by the nurturing care framework, makes this an opportune moment for grantmakers to increase their efforts to help young children thrive, support families, and transform policies.”Read More →