Early Childhood Development

The early years in a child’s life, from prenatal stages through age eight, are the most important time for supporting holistic development and preparing the child for future success in life.

Despite many positive developments — including substantial scientific and economic evidence that supports investment in the early years, unprecedented global attention and increased access to early education services — governments are not investing enough in holistic early childhood programs and systems. In addition to a lack of adequate resources, the support and responsibility for early childhood development programs are typically fragmented across government ministries, as well as between the public and private sectors, making for a disjointed effort.

Delivering programs to promote ECD at scale remains a challenge in many contexts, and the ability to recruit, retain and support a qualified workforce is critical to improving both the access to and quality of these services. Both international and domestic financing for programs remain too low to reach all children with positive, nurturing experiences, such as parenting support, early health and nutrition services, childcare and preschool. And often, the most disadvantaged are the least served. Policymakers, program designers and those delivering services can each benefit from learning from others with similar experiences, and accessing practical tools and information to strengthen their models and increase the quality of their services.

R4D works across sectors to help countries strengthen early childhood development (ECD) helping to build a strong foundation for learning, health and well-being at scale. R4D works with countries and partners to strengthen nurturing care for ECD in Primary Health Care (PHC), understand and optimize the use of digital technology, strengthen workforces working across areas in early childhood, and improve financing approaches.

1. Strengthening nurturing care for ECD in primary health care systems: With support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, R4D is helping governments promote ECD in primary health care systems. Working with UNICEF, WHO, and ministries of health in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique, we are supporting country leaders to develop national and subnational guidelines and action plans. We are also supporting these three countries to learn from each other and are developing a global resource to share evidence and lessons from country experiences on promoting nurturing care in PHC.
2. In collaboration with the Van Leer Foundation, R4D developed a database of digital tools which support parents, caregivers and the early childhood workforce. R4D also synthesized lessons and experiences of innovators and implementers developing and supporting digital tools in a landscaping report and prepared case studies on the testing, scaling, and adaptation of these tools.
3. Recognizing financing as a key barrier to scaling interventions that promote ECD, R4D conducted a global review on sources, volume and approaches to financing early childhood programs for the Global Education Commission’s landmark Learning Generation report and co-authored a British Medical Journal article on Accountability of Funds for Nurturing Care.
4. Through the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative, R4D and partners have synthesized existing knowledge and experience around key topics (e.g., competences and standards, training and professional development, working conditions) as well as country specific approaches to support cross-country learning. R4D has also developed and supported countries in implementation of practical tools to support workforce planning including the Home Visiting and Parent Support Workforce Needs Assessment Tools.

In addition to these areas of focus, R4D supports funders, policymakers and program managers working to advance ECD outcomes by supporting them to identify what works and how to scale programs, and encouraging peer-to-peer, networked learning:

• With support from The Better Way Foundation, R4D partnered with three early childhood development organizations — Amani Girls Home, Tumaini Letu, and TAHEA — to strengthen their ability to monitor and adapt their programs. Over two years, we co-developed tools and approaches to support continuous learning. Each organization integrated new methods into program management, and improved services for families.
• In Serbia, R4D teamed up with a program led by the Open Society Foundations to improve early childhood development among Roma children in Serbia. By working with partners across 15 program sites and embracing culturally sensitive processes, R4D was able to measure how parenting workshops and home visits affected parent practices and child outcomes. This work informed program improvements and contributed to the global evidence base on early childhood and parenting interventions for marginalized communities.
• R4D partnered with Pearson’s Project Literacy and WorldReader to pilot Read to Kids — a mobile app that gives parents access to a digital library of children’s books. We developed an evaluation framework and adaptive learning processes to test assumptions and improve implementation. The program reached over 200,000 households, empowered parents (especially mothers) to read regularly with their children, and generated insights that shaped more effective literacy programming.

Photo © Hippocampus Learning Centres