Community early child development campaigns: evidence from Haiti

• In Event: Interventions to promote resilience throughout the life course of children in adversity

Proposal

There is robust empirical evidence demonstrating the impact of stimulation and emotional responsiveness from caregivers to place children on “high-development trajectories” that alter the course of their lives (World Bank, 2018). Social inputs, which include protection, nurture, and stimulation, are as important to early childhood development as meeting basic nutritional needs (Garner et. al, 2012). Children’s brains are literally shaped by their interactions with their caregivers in the first 1,000 days of life (Center on the Developing Child, 2016). While the science on the impact of early childhood interventions is strong, there is a paucity of research on best practices for successfully implementing these interventions, particularly in contexts of extreme poverty in low- and middle-income countries.

This study is an outgrowth of an early grade literacy program within a network of Catholic schools in northern Haiti. The program showed statistically significant growth in basic literacy skills for 1st and 2nd grade students in a randomized controlled trial (Guzmàn et al, under review). Despite the positive results, implementing partners observed that incoming students were woefully underprepared to receive the intervention, with limited oral language skills in their mother tongue, limited understanding of phonemes, and low vocabulary levels. The partners determined that further investments in early childhood were needed to prepare children to fully absorb academic content when they entered school.

In Haiti, the Catholic Church is the single largest educational provider, with approximately 20% of students attending a Catholic school. Local parishes are an important unit of change, and religious leaders play a critical role in informing parental attitudes and behaviors. We selected this existing network of Catholic actors to disseminate information on the importance of responsive care from parents and other caregivers of young children. In September 2018, the Archbishop convened a group of 20 priests in charge of schools. The priests had an overwhelmingly positive response to the materials presented, and requested training manuals for use in pre- marriage and family pastoral counseling programs, as well as a training video showing the impact of responsive care and stimulation on brain growth. These materials are currently being developed, and will be piloted and disseminated in late 2018/early 2019 through existing parish structures such as counseling programs, parent and teacher workshops at primary schools, and broader community meetings. All materials will be in Haitian Creole, with visual examples from the Haitian context.

We have created a simple evaluation process to track progress, including quantitative pre-/post-training measures of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. We will also conduct semi-structured interviews and focus groups to gauge participants’ qualitative reactions to the program. In addition, we will report on the design of the campaign, materials created, and the structure of the trainings. Our goal is to encourage much needed thinking on how to create effective behavioral change campaigns that impact young children in contexts of extreme poverty.

Authors

• Kate Schuenke-Lucien, University of Notre Dame

• Hannah Chandler, Columbia University

• Neil Boothby, Columbia University