Meeting the Development Needs of Young Children: Updating a Cross-Sectoral Early Childhood Development Model

• In Event: Ensure Positive Early Childhood Development and Education – Evidence from Home-, Community- and School-Based ECD Interventions

Proposal

The early years of a child’s life from conception to age eight form the foundation for lifelong learning, health, and productivity. Yet approximately 250 million children under five in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their development potential (World Bank, 2024). One of the major gaps in global early childhood development and education (ECD/E) policies and programming is the lack of integrated early learning, health, nutrition, child protection, and household economic strengthening interventions to meet the holistic needs of young children. This lack of integration can result in fragmented service delivery, duplication of efforts, and missed opportunities to intervene early, especially for at-risk children affected by extreme poverty, natural disasters, and other crises. This presentation will discuss the development of an evidence-based, cross-sectoral Early Childhood Development model to meet the education, health, nutrition, and protection needs of children aged 0-8 in both developing and fragile contexts. Drawing on over 25 years of experience implementing ECD programming in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, this updated 5x5 ECD Model (five levels of interventions, impacting five levels of the population) targets the well-being of children through interventions that are home-/community-based, and school-/center-based. The 5x5 model includes four interrelated impact areas for young children: (1) early learning, (2) nutrition, (3) health, and (4) protection; and one caregiver outcome: (5) household economic strengthening. Cross-cutting and influencing factors of (i) disability, (ii) emergencies, and (iii) resilience to natural disasters are included within each of the impact areas. There are five levels where the 5x5 impact areas can be implemented: (1) child, (2) caregiver, (3) ECE spaces, (4) community, and (5) institutional. This presentation will also reflect on the results from implementing integrated ECD programming across multiple countries; opportunities to adapt the 5x5 ECD Model in conflict-affected contexts and education responses for refugee and displaced children; and the importance of ECD to promote long-term resilience building and social cohesion from an early age, contributing to peacebuilding processes.

Author

• Brittany Davis, CARE USA