Early Childhood Innovations in Conflict and Crisis Contexts during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Nearly one in every four children is living in a conflict or disaster zone. In 2019, more than seventy-one million children under the age of five had spent their entire lifetime in conflict-affected settings (Østby et al., 2020). During the first years of life, the developing brain is highly sensitive to experiences and environmental influences, as the neural connections formed during this time lay the foundation for future learning, behavior, and well-being. The accumulation of adversity due to factors such as poverty, malnutrition, disease, exposure to violence, family separation and losses coupled with lack of responsive caregiving and appropriate early learning opportunities during this critical period of human development carry consequences that can reverberate throughout an individual’s life and across broader society. This in turn threatens a pernicious cycle of instability and poverty, damaging individual prospects as well as larger community goals of social cohesion, resilience, and equity.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has rendered quality early childhood services in crisis settings even more scarce, inconsistent, and deprioritized. Increased isolation, closures of education and childcare services, intensified stress, and worsening economic conditions have amplified threats to healthy development. Despite the challenges, innovative approaches to mitigate the negative effects of compounding adversities in the critical early years of life are possible. This panel will draw from examples from three distinct contexts: Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh, Venezuelan families on the move in Colombia, and rural, indigenous crisis-affected families in Venezuela. Together with local partners, this panel will highlight three programs led by the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) programming in crisis and conflict settings. The panel include a focus on adaptive strategies to effectively design, implement, monitor, and evaluate in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim to inform future innovations for scalable and sustainable ECD interventions in crisis-affected contexts.

Sub Unit

• Early Childhood Development SIG

Chair

• Katelin Wilton, International Rescue Committee

Individual Presentations

• Gindegi Goron in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh - Ahsan Mahmud, IRC; Katelin Wilton, International Rescue Committee

• Jugar para Soñar (Colombia) - Gabriela Pena, IRC; Katelin Wilton, International Rescue Committee

• Wapushii (Venezuela) - Eloisa Della Neve, IRC; Katelin Wilton, International Rescue Committee; Gabriela Pena, IRC