Part 1: A systems approach to equity at scale in early childhood development in emergencies: challenges, opportunities, and new directions

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

There are tensions across stakeholders with the concept of scalability and its appropriateness in various settings and for diverse purposes. Furthermore, there are tensions regarding defining “scaling” in various ways, and what its focus should be, broadly and in the ECD sector. These tensions are compounded by ECD’s multisectorality and historically limited opportunities for service participants to co-construct interventions to meet their distinct needs. Challenges to scaling ECD and ECDiE interventions have also been identified. Despite tensions and challenges, evidence also suggests that scaling up ECD programmes and services is promising for ensuring all young children meet their developmental potential. This evidence suggests determining if, how, what, and when to scale with regards to ECD programmes is crucial for ensuring ECDiE is inclusive and equitable in varying acute and protracted crisis settings.

This two-part panel series will highlight applied research in relation to CIES 2023’s Sub-Theme I: Social Justice and Inclusion.

The Part I Panel is Scaling Early Childhood Development in Crisis Settings: Challenges and Opportunities for Equity. The chair will open the panel by presenting the debate on various definitions and approaches to scaling, generally, and for ECD systems, programmes and services, sharing key take-aways with regards to how it has been considered and is evolving in the literature. For instance, evidence comparing and contrasting scaling “smaller to bigger” and “big to better” will be highlighted. Scaling “smaller to bigger” is where smaller pilots are expanded, and literature suggests this approach is not “tried and true” in every instance. Quality and/or effect sizes have been compromised in some smaller-scale ECD programs piloted which have subsequently been scaled up. Furthermore, scaling “smaller to bigger” may be compared with arguments for scaling programmes from “big to better,” meaning to enhance the quality or targeting of ECD interventions and services already at national scale.

The chair will also emphasize that regardless of a focus of “smaller to bigger” and “big to better,” a systems approach for ensuring equity at scale in Early Childhood Development in Emergencies (ECDiE) may be considered in varying ways by stakeholders. This is dependent on the systems types included, such as national systems; humanitarian architecture, mechanisms and systems; and/or cultural systems.

The chair will underscore how in crisis settings, the debates around if, what and how to scale are more dynamic, as stakeholders consider the affected population’s expressed needs and how these vary depending on context and crisis type. For example, populations affected by acute crises, such as immediately following displacement due to natural disasters or conflict. These crises may have different needs than populations experiencing protracted conflict, those with refugee status, longer-term displacement and/or on the move.

Four panelists will present various ECDiE interventions across a range of geographic contexts and crisis types, underscoring ECDiE scaling challenges, recommendations, and reflections on emergent lessons learned from across the programme cycle – from design to monitoring and evaluation. One paper will showcase emergent dimensions and criteria for assessing ECDiE programmes’ readiness to scale and related lessons learned. Further, three papers will illustrate how programmes and services have been scaled to date and reflections on plans for the future.

A moderated discussion and question and answer portion of the panel will ensue, with panelists being asked critical questions regarding the perceived benefits, appropriateness and challenges to scaling - irrespective of how it is defined. Panelists will be asked about to what extent, based on the emergent evidence, scaling ECDiE interventions is appropriate, or not; scaling ECDiE interventions may or may not serve a conduit to equity; scaling ECDiE programmes promotes inclusion and localization; and scaling ECDiE interventions to date has or has not achieved its intended vision for young children and families in various acute and protracted crisis settings. Panelists may discuss implications for if and how to scale ECDiE interventions initiated during crises into recovery contexts.

The discussant will wrap up the session highlighting how each process and/or intervention presented aligns with or contrasts with scaling challenges and tensions in the existing literature, identifying important future directions for ECDiE funders, implementers, and the affected population in promoting inclusion and equity through ECDiE efforts being taken to scale.

Sub Unit

• Early Childhood Development SIG

Chair

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Global TIES for Children, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Lessons learned: designing and employing dimensions and criteria to assess readiness for scaling ECD in emergencies programmes and services - Kathryn A Moore

• An approach to expanding early childhood services in humanitarian settings: co-creating with communities and respecting indigenous knowledge - Kuri Chisim, BRAC Institute of Educational Development; Nadya Khan, BRAC Institute of Educational Development

• Envisioning Venezuelan migrant children accessing inclusive play-based, and quality ECE programming at scale in Colombia - Camilo Valenzuela, IRC

• Humanitarian Play Labs (HPL) in Uganda: An integrated model to serve ECD services in humanitarian settings at scale - Charles Michael Ariko, BRAC Uganda; Francis Nabaasa, BRAC Uganda

Discussant

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Global TIES for Children, New York University