In 2015, Research for Development (R4D) reviewed 21 national and global campaigns to find out what works. The publication delves into the lessons learned from six case studies to inform the international early childhood development community on how other sectors have approached advocacy, as well as how specific ECD campaigns achieved national impact.Read More →
In an interview with the Open Access Government journal, the World Health Organization explains why enabling young children to achieve their full developmental potential is a human right and an essential requisite for sustainable development. 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 →
This special edition of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences brings together papers authored by global researchers and practitioners in the field of early child development including academicians, funders, think tanks, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. It covers topics related to costing and financing interventions that support ECD, shaping demand, supporting ECD in fragile contexts, capacity building, and transitioning to scale, with global programmatic experience.Read More →
This framework from the International Step-by-Step Association is grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and stands for the centrality of the child and family in conceptualizing, designing and implementing programs dedicated to this age group, no matter the type of service, program, or sector. It comprises 31 principles and 143 recommended practices, grouped around 9 focus areas, thus covering the complexity of the practices and responsibilities that binds all professionals working in early childhood services.Read More →
This series from the Lancet considers new scientific evidence for interventions, building on the findings and recommendations from previous Lancet work on child development (2007, 2011). It proposes pathways for implementation of early childhood development at scale. The series emphasises the nurturing care concept, especially of 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 →
This WHO package from 2016 sets out a select group of strategies that have shown to be successful in reducing violence against children. They are: implementation and enforcement of laws, norms and values; safe environments; parent and caregiver support; income and economic strengthening; response and support services; and education and life skills. The publication is available in 12 languages and there is an accompanying video and infographics in six languages.Read More →
The Nurturing Care Framework has the potential to improve the lives of millions of children worldwide and to boost the global economy by trillions of dollars, according to two U.S. analysts writing for the Seattle Times. Peter Laugharn is President and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Steve Davis is President and CEO of PATH. The two express strong joint support for the approach: “These interventions are cost-effective, relatively easy to provide, and can even be added to existing programs. And they deliver an incredible financial return to communities.” In discussing these claims, the authors cite the work of Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, who has shown that investment in children aged 0-3 produces the highest financial returns. Read More →
This 20th anniversary edition features 26 articles, from a parenting programme informed by the Gross National Happiness policy in Bhutan to community health workers’ use of technology to treat maternal depression in Pakistan. Highlighting innovations, the path to scale and emerging initiatives in the field, Early Childhood Matters is again guest-edited by international early childhood expert Joan Lombardi.Read More →
In putting together the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO commissioned a paper that considered the role of nurturing care in crisis settings. The authors envisage a key role for the Framework: “The most urgent need for children age 0 to 6 in crisis settings “is the political will to recognize the need for young children to receive nurturing care and to implement the science at scale”.”Read More →
The 2018 monitoring report for the Every Woman Every Child global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health provides updates on progress towards the Survive, Thrive, and Transform goals, which were set out in the 2016-2030 global strategy. The report recommends implementing the Nurturing Care Framework as the first strategic priority for achieving the goals set forth for early childhood development. It also includes a section summarizing the latest evidence for early childhood development, and highlighting the importance of nurturing care.Read More →
This guidance note aims to catalyse country-level dialogue and action around health service delivery and systems strengthening, while also outlining complementary actions by other sectors. It is the first in a series to help with operationalization of the Nurturing Care Framework.Read More →
This brief from the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatrics Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation explains the strategies, lessons learned, and way forward to ensuring nurturing care for children affected by HIV in Tanzania’s Tabora region.Read More →
This report, one year after the launch of the Nurturing Care Framework, summarizes concerted efforts at national, regional, and global levels to disseminate the Framework and identify entry points in the health sector and beyond for implementation.Read More →
A new WHO guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on improving early childhood development through interventions that support responsive caregiving and early learning. Evidence shows that early childhood development is an outcome of healthy, nurturing interactions between caregivers and children, and as such, the guideline focuses on the needs of both the caregivers and young children.Read More →
This paper from the Maternal and Child Survival Program on behalf of the Child Health Task Force takes an in-depth look at “thrive and transform” interventions — such as uptake of nurturing care — in relation to child survival interventions. It focuses on three African countries: Kenya, Senegal and Zambia, with further examples from Ghana and Rwanda.Read More →
The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action has produced a technical note on the protection of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this brief is to support child protection practitioners to better respond to the child protection risks during a COVID-19 pandemic.Read More →
