Why focus on Early Childhood Development?
Globally, poverty, undernutrition, and inadequate care put 250 million children at risk of not reaching their developmental potential. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed millions of children to adversities that warrants urgent focus on young children. The Nurturing Care Framework recognizes the critical role multiple sectors, especially health and nutrition, play in creating an environment that protects, promotes, and nourishes child growth and development.
Our work:
- Integrates responsive care and early learning with nutrition services, promoting optimal growth and development outcomes for children through a gender-sensitive lens
- Strengthens nutrition and health services for delivering nurturing care
- Contributes to the evidence-base on how to deliver integrated services with quality, equity, and impact
- Strengthens capacity for leadership and governance for holistic child development.
Highlighted resources
The Early Childhood Development team recently completed a landscape analysis on nurturing care through secondary sources for Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
These interactive country profiles compile national data alongside information on national policies and programs to highlight both the needs and opportunities for promoting optimal child development and are complementary to the Nurturing Care's country profiles.
