Early Childhood Matters 2019 Advances in early childhood development Early Childhood Matters aims to elevate key issues, spread awareness of promising solutions to support holistic child development and explore the elements needed to take those solutions to scale. It is published annually by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The views expressed in Early Childhood Matters are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. Work featured is not necessarily funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. © Bernard van Leer Foundation, 2019 Reproduction of articles by photocopying or electronic means for non-commercial purposes is permitted. However, it is requested that the author, Early Childhood Matters and Bernard van Leer Foundation Bernard van Leer Foundation are cited as the source of the PO Box 82334 information. Permission must be obtained to use photos. 2508 EH The Hague, The Netherlands ISSN 1387-9553 Tel: +31 (0)70 331 2200 www.bernardvanleer.org Cover: Father and child sharing a special moment together in Mumbai, India. Production editor: Teresa Moreno Photo: Dhiraj Singh/Bernard van Leer Foundation Guest editor: Joan Lombardi Consultant editor: Andrew Wright This 2019 issue of Early Childhood Matters is no. 128 in the Text editing: Margaret Mellor series. Also published in Spanish: Espacio para la Infancia Design: Laura de Jongh (ISSN 1566-6476) Illustrations: Gemma Pauwels 2019 Early Childhood Matters Advances in early childhood development Contents EDITORIAL 4 To thrive: a goal for children everywhere Joan Lombardi SCALING 40 Giving newborns the best start: scaling-up interventions to increase early initiation of breastfeeding in South East Asia Joy Miller Del Rosso 46 Scaling nurturing care through a multi-sectoral, bottom-up approach in the Kyrgyz Republic Sweta Shah and Burulai Aitikulova 50 Lessons learned from national government-led efforts to reduce adolescent pregnancy in Chile, England and Ethiopia Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, Marina Plesons, Alison LEADERSHIP Hadley, Matilde Maddaleno, Lemessa Oljira, Senait Tibebu, 10 Clean air, healthy children and decent work Elsie Akwara and Danielle Engel María Fernanda Espinosa 57 Loving fathers, thriving children: opportunities for scaling 14 Early childhood development at the heart gender-transformative approaches of nutrition Helena Duch, Kate Doyle, Anjalee Kohli, Ruti G. Levtov Daniel Kablan Duncan and Rebecka Lundgren 19 Solid Start: supporting municipalities to 63 Inter-sectoral coordination in early childhood systems: the tailor solutions for children’s first 1000 days Primokiz approach Hugo de Jonge Konstantina Rentzou, Mihaela Ionescu, Philine Zimmerli and Cristiana Boca 24 Early childhood: why we need to invest in the future of cities 68 Key principles for financing a qualified early childhood Geraldo Júlio workforce Mark Roland and Michelle Neuman 29 Little lungs, not polar bears: the new face of climate change 74 The Global Financing Facility: investing in the early years Kate Hampton, Rob Hughes and Matt Whitney Mariam Claeson 34 The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement: 80 The Global Scale for Early Development (GSED) striving for impact at scale GSED team Gerda Verburg 85 Using the power of mass media to achieve impact at scale: an experiment that worked Sherrie Westin 2 INNOVATIONS GLOBAL IMPRESSIONS 92 Empowering frontline early childhood workers through 134 Using cash transfers to boost early technology in India childhood development: training parents Mohini Kak on child stimulation Laura B. Rawlings, Julieta M. Trias and 96 mThrive: a nurturing care app that supports community Melissa Zumaeta Aurazo health workers Rob Hughes, Beatrice Wasunna, Dickens Omedo and 136 The case for inclusive education Najma Rashid Dragana Sretenov and Nafisa Baboo 102 LEAPS: a strategy to benefit young children and youth 138 Air pollution and child health: prescribing Aisha K. Yousafzai, with the LEAPS Team clean air Julia Gorman and Marie-Noël Bruné 106 From little ripples to big waves: comprehensive early Drisse childhood programming for young refugee children Kelsey Dalrymple and Sara-Christine Dallain 142 The effects of transportation on early childhood development 110 BRAC Humanitarian Play Lab: when playing becomes healing Julien Vincelot and Patrin Watanatada Erum Mariam, Syeda Sazia Zaman, Sakila Yesmin, Sadaf Huq, Sarwat Sarah Sarwar 144 Designing streets for kids: possibilities for children in the built environment 114 Building cognitive capital, brightening China’s future: Skye Duncan, Ankita Chachra and Annie piloting community-based early childhood programming Peyton Xuefeng Chen and Qi Zhao 146 Drone photography improves 118 Philanthropy and government working together for a understanding of spaces for children in child-friendly Shenzhen Lima Wenfeng Huang Martín Benavides Abanto and Juan León Jara-Almonte 122 The Urban95 Challenge: crowdsourcing ideas to improve city livability for caregivers and kids Ardan Kockelkoren 125 Istanbul95: innovating with partners Yigit Aksakoglu˘ 128 Increasing the impact of early childhood programmes through behavioural science: initial prospects Sam Sternin 3 Early Childhood Matters 2019 Photo: Cihan Özdamar/Bernard van Leer Foundation EDITORIAL To thrive: a goal for children everywhere Joan Lombardi Guest Editor To thrive is to flourish, it is to bloom. For a child it means that they are able to meet their potential, to be happy, healthy, joyful, curious and strong. While the picture of a child thriving may be different across the world, depending on conditions and cultures, what is common in children who thrive is that overall sense of well-being which comes from good health, nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving and opportunities to learn. These are the elements of nurturing care. That every child grows up thriving is the goal of early childhood development. It takes strong families, supported by strong communities and a set of policies that understand this principle. It takes an acknowledgement that the domains of development are integrated – thus health, learning and behaviour are interrelated. And it takes continuity of quality services and family supports, starting in the earliest years, which together provide the foundation for a lifetime of development. Early Childhood Matters 2019 Upon the publication of Early Childhood Matters 2019, and on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989), we recommit ourselves to the goal that all children meet their developmental potential and that children everywhere grow up thriving. To celebrate this goal we present a tapestry of articles that, woven together, provide a glimpse of the advances in early childhood development taking place around the world. As in years past, we offer articles that reflect leadership, scaling and innovation, along with short reviews of some of the emerging trends and reports. We kick off this issue with the voices of important leaders from the United Nations, a foundation and public officials from around the world. Together these articles demonstrate the growing support for early childhood and raise new themes and trends facing young children and families including, among others, the importance of clean air to children’s health, the increasing focus on early nutrition, and new directions for urban planning. These authors represent the growing list of new champions who are standing up for the importance of ‘For a child, to thrive the early years to long-term development and well-being. means that they are able to meet their The focus on scaling early childhood services includes both regional and potential, to be country examples emerging across a number of topics. These examples happy, healthy, joyful, provide insight into the various strategies being used to scale services or raise curious and strong.' public awareness and influence behaviour. In addition, core elements central to scaling are highlighted, including the need for inter-sectoral collaboration, increased financing and workforce supports, new measurement tools, and the use of media. The line between scaling and innovation is not always direct. Many innovations are emerging as they scale and many scaling efforts are innovating as they grow. This becomes evident when reading through the wide-ranging articles in the Innovation section which includes the use of technology to improve services, new strategies to reach whole communities and neighbourhoods, the integration of early childhood services in refugee communities and the potential of behavioural sciences to impact development. Finally, anyone working in the field of early childhood knows that there are many exciting new initiatives and reports emerging almost every day. It is getting more and more difficult to just keep up. We were able to highlight only a few reports from the many that are emerging. These include topics such as income supports and parenting, inclusive education, transportation, urban design, air pollution and others. Looking across all of these articles, one can almost feel the vitality of the early childhood development and related fields. Taken together, the topics covered form a quilt of individual and collective efforts to support families, promote health and nutrition, assure safety and security, and enhance early learning. While the quilt is presented in pieces, the various activities are being Editorial 6 Photo: Vanessa Touzard/Bernard van Leer Foundation knitted together in communities and countries around