C4D and Early Childhood Development

Over 43 per cent of children under the age of 5 are at risk of not fulfilling their full developmental potential, due to risks of poverty, poor nutrition lack of access to basic services and early enriching opportunities. Additionally, in a world where prolonged conflicts and emergencies wrought by a changing climate, are increasing, one in 11 children aged 7 and younger have spent the formative early years of their lives surrounded by protracted war and conflict. Juxtaposed against this inequity is the invaluable evidence gained from the remarkable advances in neuroscience that show that a child’s development (including development of the brain) is fundamentally shaped by its environment in the earliest years of its life.*

Our C4D & Early Childhood Development (ECD) section houses a range of resources that offer a more in-depth look at how a wide range of local, national and global organisations are using C4D methods to support ECD across a range of development sectors.

*(Text taken from UNICEF https://washenablingenvironment.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/21072017-ecd-programme-guidance.pdf)

Latest Early Childhood Development News and Resources

Getting girls’ voices heard on the global stage: progress since the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action

Author: Nicola Jones Much progress has been made since Beijing in 1995, when ‘The Girl Child’ was singled out as one of ...
Read More

National Social and Behaviour Change Communication Strategy for Integrated Early Childhood Development, Nutrition and WASH 2018 – 2024 (Government of Rwanda, 2018)

The National SBCC Strategy will build on the integration of Early Children Development, Nutrition and WASH sectors which provides opportunities of ...
Read More

Engaging Community Members to Adopt Effective WASH Practices for Nutrition (SPRING brief, 2017)

The first 1,000 days, the period from pregnancy to two years of age, are critical for early childhood development. During this time, children ...
Read More

Mobile phone-delivered reminders and incentives to improve childhood immunisation coverage and timeliness in Kenya (M-SIMU): a cluster randomised controlled trial (The Lancet, Volume 5:4, PE428-E438, 2017)

Background: As mobile phone access continues to expand globally, opportunities exist to leverage these technologies to support demand for immunisation services ...
Read More

Adding a Nutrition Behavior Change Communication Component to an Early Childhood Development Intervention in Malawi (IFPRI Discussion Paper 01804, 2019)

In Africa south of the Sahara, including Malawi, an estimated 61 percent of children below the age of five are ...
Read More

Large-Scale Social and Behavior Change Communication Interventions Have Sustained Impacts on Infant and Young Child Feeding Knowledge and Practices – Results of a 2-Year Follow-Up Study in Bangladesh (The Journal of Nutrition, 148:10, 2018)

Sustained improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) require continued implementation of effective interventions. From 2010–2014, Alive & Thrive ...
Read More

How has media programming supported polio eradication? (BBC Media Action Research Briefing, 2018)

This briefing synthesises findings from research conducted in the three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia - with a focus on ...
Read More

Modelling the effect of a mass radio campaign on child mortality using facility utilisation data and the Lives Saved Tool (LiST): findings from a cluster randomised trial in Burkina Faso (BMJ Global Health 2018;3)

A cluster randomised trial (CRT) in Burkina Faso was the first to demonstrate that a radio campaign increased health-seeking behaviours, ...
Read More