This event is part of the Strengthening Nurturing Care in Humanitarian Response Webinar Series
Moderated by Linda Doull, Global Health Cluster Coordinator, this final webinar in the Strengthening Nurturing Care in Humanitarian Response series focused on further institutionalizing nurturing care in humanitarian health interventions.
Ayesha Kadir, Senior Humanitarian Health Advisor at Save the Children International, provided a summary of the key points from the two previous webinars. She discussed the impact of stress on early child development, focusing on the critical period before birth to age 3, and then presented the nurturing care framework, emphasizing components like good health, nutrition, safety, responsive caregiving, and early learning opportunities. Ayesha highlighted the framework's role in addressing social determinants to save children's lives during emergencies.
Ron Pouwels, Child Protection AoR, UNICEF, highlighted the interconnected nature of children's rights outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, emphasizing how crises expose children to violence and separation. He discussed the child protection sector's role in supporting early childhood development, ensuring safety, promoting responsive caregiving, and building resilience. Ron cited examples of child protection activities contributing to ECD, referenced Child Protection Minimum Standards, and emphasized coordination with health and nutrition for a comprehensive nurturing care approach.
Amir Yarparvar of UNICEF Lebanon stressed the significance of nutrition and caregiving for healthy brain development in children. He introduced Lebanon's Rising initiative, which employs community health workers and digital platforms to address malnutrition and developmental delays. The initiative involves screening, milestone tracking, and training frontline workers in the nurturing care framework. Amir emphasized institutionalizing milestone screening and spoke of an upcoming nutrition and ECD survey in Lebanon to provide updated evidence and inform future programming and policies.
Amaah Penn, Health Cluster Coordinator in Ukraine, noted the absence of specific early childhood development (ECD) mentions in humanitarian response plans. He emphasized the importance of integrating ECD into needs assessments, strategic planning, and emergency response designs. He highlighted community-based programming, leveraging existing local capacities, and outlined challenges such as differing priorities, costs, and cultural nuances. Penn stressed the need for advocacy to prioritize ECD, analyzing sector work for context-specific interventions, and promoting coordination through area-based approaches. He called for strategic advocacy, cross-sector analysis, and context-specific definitions of minimum service standards and indicators for ECD.
Overall, the discussion reinforced the need for a greater understanding of current ECD work, strengthened collaboration, and institutionalized ECD within strategic planning, programming, and monitoring in humanitarian health responses.