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Journal 2020

The COVID-19 issue

The global COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the enormous gaps between communities, cities, regions and nation states. To shape a better future, investing in early childhood needs to remain a priority for all governments and societies. Front and centre of this year’s Early Childhood Matters are resounding calls to action from global leaders and experts to ensure that young children, families, frontline workers and cities continue to thrive.

The 33 articles included this year demonstrate a diversity of projects, programmes and policies on how to address several of todays’ challenges impacting babies, toddlers and their caregivers especially due to COVID-19.

Authors include Laura Chinchilla Miranda, former President of Costa Rica; Constanza Alarcón Párraga, Vice-minister of Basic and Middle Preschool Education, Colombia; Princess Dina Mired of Jordan; Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana, Albania; Teresa Surita, Mayor of Boa Vista, Brazil; and many others…

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Table of contents

Editorial

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Rising to the challenges of today by investing in the early years for the present and future
Photo of contributor
Cecilia Vaca Jones

Leadership

Bold leadership – or, as we see it, the ability to mobilise people to solve important problems collectively – is crucial to achieving results for young children. In this section, leaders from local and national government, civil society and academia discuss meeting the challenges of today and using strategic foresight to shape the future of early childhood.

Leadership - Early Childhood Matters 2020
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The Covid-19 pandemic and childhood in Latin America and the Caribbean
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Laura Chinchilla Miranda
Inter-sectoral coordination in early childhood systems: the Primokiz approach
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Konstantina Rentzou, Mihaela Ionescu, Philine Zimmerli and Cristiana Boca
Investing in evidence to achieve health equity for refugee children
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Tala Al-Rousan, Cheryl Cheryl A.M. Anderson and Princess Dina Mired of Jordan
Returning the city to children
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Erion Veliaj
Boa Vista, the Early Childhood capital, faces prejudice and Covid-19
Photo of contributor
Teresa Surita

Scaling

There are many pathways to scale – taking a successful small programme, and making it work for hundreds of thousands of children – but the challenges are complex. In this section, practitioners and policymakers explore issues such as coordination, financing, training, monitoring and learning, with many of the articles touching on the unique challenges and new opportunities created in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scaling - Early Childhood Matters 2020
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Jamii ni Afya: using digital tools to scale integrated services to mothers and children in Zanzibar
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Kim Wilson, Allyson Nelson, Taylor Craig, Rachel Hofmann and Erica Layer
Perinatal depression in Chile: advances and challenges
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Matías Irarrázaval
Mental health and learning: BRAC’s response in Bangladesh during Covid-19
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Jahanara Ahmad, Erum Mariam, Bushra Humaira Sadaf, Sarwat Sarah Sarwar, Shaheen Nafisa Siddique and Syeda Sazia Zaman
Scaling early childhood services in cities: lessons from four Urban95 case studies
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Jennifer Widner and Savvas Verdis
Supporting children to grow smarter, not just taller: here’s how
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Elizabeth L. Prado, Leila M. Larson and Anuraj H. Shankar
Identity matters: addressing inequity starts in early childhood
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Zarlasht Halaimzai
Business matters: engaging the private sector to give young children a healthy start in life
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Lawrence Haddad
Sugira Muryango: scaling home visits in Rwanda through implementation science
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Anita Asiimwe, Emmanuel Habyarimana, Theresa Betancourt, Tressa Johnson and Shauna Murray
Improving child outcomes in Egypt through blended training and community awareness
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Abla Al-Alfy
Scaling-up mother tongue-based multilingual preschool education in Odisha
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Anu Garg, Aravind Agarwal, R.R. Nayak and Priyadarsini Mohanty

Innovations

Before good practices can be taken to scale, we first need good ideas. In this section, we focus on innovations – new or emerging programmes, policies or services which have the potential to meet the needs of young children and their caregivers in a wider range of contexts.

Innovations - Early Childhood Matters 2020
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CanalCanoa: strengthening indigenous values to improve early childhood development
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Kurt Shaw and Rita de Cácia Oenning da Silva
A pragmatic approach to expanding access to quality early learning for South Africa’s poorest children
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Carley Furness-Symms, Tressa Johnson and Grace Matlhape
How maternal depression and behaviours impact child health and development
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Erin Pfeiffer
The ‘Village’ project: towards early learning communities
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Giorgio Tamburlini, Anduena Alushaj and Francesca Vezzini
OneSky: blended learning for home-based childcare providers in Vietnam
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Alice Wong
Strategic foresight and the post-Covid future of early childhood
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Joe Waters
Adapting service delivery to reach marginalised women and children in urban areas
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Folake Olayinka and Chloe Manchester
Rotterdam research will inform decisions on future pandemic lockdowns
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Vincent Jaddoe
Planning play for 1.1 million babies: Istanbul95
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Selva Gürdogan
How Covid-19 accelerated change: innovations in working with parents in Israel
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Maya Yaari and Idit Schuman-Adatto

Global impressions

The articles in this section highlight initiatives, resources and approaches that have inspired us over the last year, which we believe deserve a wider audience.

Global impressions - Early Childhood Matters 2020
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Building early childhood systems
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Sharon Lynn Kagan and Caitlin M. Dermody
Stigmatised and unsupported: the double tragedy of children with incarcerated parents
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Rose Atieno Opiyo
The Beginning of Life 2 – Outside: new documentary promotes children’s engagement with nature
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Laís Fleury
Climate change and early childhood development: finding the synergies
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Carlos Carlos Dora
Streets as assets in the Covid-19 pandemic response and recovery
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Skye Duncan
Help or hindrance? The impact of gig work on caregiving
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Emma Samman and Abigail Hunt
Towards a feminist childcare recovery
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Elliot Haspel
Issue details

The views expressed in Early Childhood Matters are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Van Leer Foundation. Initiatives featured are not necessarily funded by the Van Leer Foundation.

© Van Leer Foundation, 2020

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 Van Leer Foundation are cited as the source of the information. Permission must be obtained to use photos. ISSN 1387-9553

Cover photo: splendens/iStock

This 2020 issue of Early Childhood Matters is no. 129 in the series. Also published in Spanish: Espacio para la Infancia (ISSN 1566-6476)

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Editorial board

Photo of contributor
Cecilia Vaca Jones
Executive Director, Bernard van Leer Foundation
Photo of contributor
Zarlasht Halaimzai
Director and Co-Founder, Refugee Trauma Initiative, Thessaloniki, Greece

Production editor

Frances Buckingham

Consultant editor

Andrew Wright

Text editing

Margaret Mellor

Design

Laura de Jongh

Illustrations

Abbey Lossing
Resources

Hoping this issue of Early Childhood Matters is a valuable resource for you, we encourage you to share within your network. Below some infographics, including a GIF, and more detailed guidelines with sample social media messages for you to share.

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Author quotes

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