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‘Investing in Early Years on Human Capital for Future Resilience: For an Inclusive and Equitable World’ focuses on the urgent need for global investments in young children for realizing sustainable development and equitable outcomes for all. Access to services and participation, equity and inclusion are key drivers to realize the rights of the child.
Moving beyond a cost-benefit analysis, this book provides a socio-economic perspective that attributes crucial early years investments in health, nutrition, education, social protection, and public finance for children as vital for human…
Application of scientific findings to effective practice and informed policymaking is an aspiration for much research in the biomedical, behavioural, and developmental sciences. But too often translations of science to practice are conceptually narrow, ethically underspecified, and developed quickly as salves to an urgent problem. For developmental science, widely implemented parenting interventions are prime examples of technical translations from knowledge about the causes of children’s mental distress. Aiming to support family relationships and facilitate adaptive child development, these…
This publication is meant to guide the collection of reliable, internationally comparable data on key ECD indicators, the selection of which was informed by the Nurturing Care Framework.
While data on ECD come from different sources, this publication focuses on those that can be produced through household surveys. Detailed information on the selected indicators is provided along with guidance for the collection, analysis, monitoring and reporting on these indicators at national and global levels.
In cases where an indicator refers to a wider age range, the indicator metadata includes a…
This study examined longitudinal data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care following exposure to severe psychosocial deprivation. The authors report data from 135 participants assessed in early adulthood (age 18 y). They found that 16 years after randomization occurred, those who had been randomized to high-quality foster care had significantly higher IQ scores (9 points, 0.6 SD) than those randomized to care as usual.
Mediation analyses provide evidence that the causal effect of the intervention…
Engaging families in the casework process promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families in the child welfare system and is central to successful practice. Effective family engagement occurs when child welfare practitioners actively collaborate and partner with the family network, including maternal and paternal relatives and fictive kin, throughout their involvement with the child welfare system and recognizing them as the experts on their respective situations. This bulletin for professionals provides an overview of the foundational elements of the family…
This report published by UNICEF’s Office of Research – Innocenti, ranks countries across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) based on their national childcare and parental leave policies. These policies include the accessibility, affordability and quality of childcare for children between birth and school age. The report notes that COVID-19-related closures of childcare facilities have pushed families of young children into further difficult circumstances. Many parents have been struggling to balance childcare and the…
This document compares three versions of the same home visiting model, aimed at improving parent-child interactions and child development: the well-known Jamaica model, which was gradually scaled up from an efficacy trial (‘proof of concept’) in Jamaica, to a pilot in Colombia, to an at-scale program in Peru. It first describes the design, implementation and impacts of these three programs. Then, it analyzes the threats to scalability in each of these experiences and discusses how they could have affected program outcomes, with a focus on three of the elements of the economic model…
The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office in collaboration with UNICEF organized a 3-day virtual meeting from 27 to 29 April, 2021. The meeting brought together over 100 participants from WHO-SEAR countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka , Thailand and Timor-Leste) and two countries from UNICEF-ROSA (Afghanistan Pakistan). Participants included government delegates from relevant ministries (health, nutrition, education, child protection, women and child affairs), WHO and UNICEF staff and partners.
On Day 1, participants reflected on progress to date…
Early childhood is deeply influential in a child’s life trajectory. Children need nurturing care to enable them to develop to their full potential. Evidence demonstrates the critical role of parents and the importance of play in holistic child development making playful parenting an important component in children’s early years development. When development is delayed, or at risk, interventions, including those that incorporate play and communication between the primary caregiver and the child are critical. But how well are caregivers equipped to better identify risks and support their…
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.