Implementing the nurturing care framework: resources

Implementing the Nurturing care framework Resources “If we change the beginning of the story, we change the whole story.” — Raffi Cavoukian To reach their full potential, children need the five inter- related and indivisible components of nurturing care: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and opportunities for learning. In the first years of life, parents, intimate family members and caregivers are the closest to the young child and thus the best providers of nurturing care. This is why secure family environments are important for young children. In order to provide caregivers with time and resources to provide nurturing care, policies, services and community supports need to be in place. The Nurturing care for early childhood development: a framework for helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential draws on state-of-the-art evidence on how early childhood development unfolds to set out the most effective policies and services that will help parents and caregivers provide nurturing care for infants and young children. It is designed to serve as a roadmap for action, helping mobilize a coalition of parents and caregivers, national governments, civil society groups, academics, the United Nations, the private sector, educational institutions, and service providers to ensure that every newborn, infant and young child can make the best start in life. Investing in early childhood development is good for everyone – governments, businesses, communities, parents and caregivers, and most of all, infants and young children. It is also the right thing to do, helping every child realize the right to survive and thrive. To support the implementation of the Nurturing care framework, the nurturing care website provides ample resources. Visit the site at: https://nurturing-care.org Photo credit: © UNICEF/U.S. CDC/UN0723249/Martin San Diego What the child’s brain and body expects and needs Enabling environments for nurturing care TE D ROS A D H A N O M G H E B R E Y E SU S , D IR EC TO R - G E N E R A L , WO R LD H E A LTH O RGA N I Z ATI O N “The period from pregnancy to age 3 is key for the child’s development. That’s when the brain grows fastest. And that’s why young children need a safe, secure, and loving environment, with the right nutrition and stimulation from their parents and caregivers.” H E N R IE T TA H . FO R E , FO R M E R E XECUTI V E D IR EC TO R , U N I CE F “Nurturing care is about children, their families and the services that support them. Nurturing care is about promoting positive, loving connections and interactions in the earliest years to help young children survive and thrive.” CA RE GIV ERS’ CAPABILITIES EM PO WER ED COMMUNITIES ENA BLING POLICIES SU PPO RTIVE SERVICES Resources Following the launch of the Nurturing care framework in 2018, numerous resources have been developed to support advocacy and implementation of the Framework. These resources, and others, are available on the nurturing care website. Nurturing care handbook This handbook is composed of six guides and organized around the five strategic actions of the Nurturing Care Framework. Each guide includes overviews, suggested actions, common barriers, tools and checklists, indicators, links to helpful articles and websites, and case studies, showing how governments and organizations around the world have put nurturing care into practice. https://nurturing-care.org/handbook Nurturing care practice guide This guide responds to requests from practitioners and country teams who have learned about the Nurturing care framework and want to understand how to adapt health and nutrition services to be supportive of nurturing care and strengthen caregivers’ capacity. https://nurturing-care.org/practiceguide/ Nurturing care advocacy toolkit The advocacy toolkit includes a repository of practical tools and resources to help you advocate for increased attention to and investment in early childhood development with and through health systems. The toolkit includes key messages, frequently asked questions, and quote cards. https://nurturing-care.org/advocacy-toolkit Thematic briefs The briefs make the case for applying a nurturing care lens when addressing specific issues affecting children’s development. They outline what is already happening and what can be done better or differently at multiple levels to ensure families receive the support they need and children receive nurturing care. https://nurturing-care.org/thematic-briefs Country experiences Countries are at different stages of advancing nurturing care with and through health systems. Small and big changes are happening at national and sub-national levels. The information provided gives you a glimpse into ‘what is happening where’ under each of the five strategic actions. https://nurturing-care.org/countries Country profiles for ECD The profiles compile, in one place, the available data for country and cross-country monitoring and provide a baseline against which progress can be monitored. The 2021 country profiles cover 42 ECD indicators and 197 countries, including 60 high-income countries (HICs). https://nurturing-care.org/resources/country-profiles Visit the nurturing care website and stay updated on events, experiences and resources that are relevant for ensuring that every child can make the best start in life and develop their full potential. https://nurturing-care.org nurturing-care.org ecdan.org J O IN TH E CO N V E R SATI O N #NurturingCare @NurturingCare CO NTAC T Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, World Health Organization at mncah@who.int or NurturingCare@who.int. FO R M O R E IN FO R M ATI O N Photo credit: © UNICEF/UN0198614/Njiokiktjien VII Photo The document Nurturing care for early childhood development: a framework for helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential builds on state-of-the art evidence of how child development unfolds and of the effective policies and interventions that can improve early childhood development. WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank Group developed the Nurturing care framework in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, the Early Childhood Development Action Network and many other partners to provide a roadmap for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals and the survive, thrive and transform goals of the Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. Nurturing care framework for early childhood development Launched alongside the seventy-first World Health Assembly in May 2018, it outlines: i) why efforts to improve health and well-being must begin in the earliest years, from pregnancy to age 3; ii) the major threats to early childhood development; iii) how nurturing care protects young children from the effects of adversity and promotes physical, emotional and cognitive development; and iv) what families and caregivers need in order to provide nurturing care for young children. Implementing the nurturing care framework: resources ISBN 978-92-9-062040-2 © World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2024. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence.