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Early childhood care and development (ECCD)
The first six years of a child’s life is a time of great promise and rapid change, when their developing brain is most open to the influence of relationships and experiences. However, millions of children across the world are at risk of not reaching their full potential because they do not get the care and stimulation they need in the early stages of life.
To achieve the SDGs and ensure that all girls and boys, especially the most deprived, are developmentally on-track we need to start early. Save the Children works with families and communities to help children to develop foundational learning skills in the years leading up to school. Save the Children also works with communities and partners to advocate for policies and practices that recognise the value of starting early and investing in cost-effective, inclusive quality approaches to ECCD.
Our goal is that all children will access quality inclusive early childhood care and demonstrate improved child development outcomes.
Save the Children’s experience shows that to reach the most vulnerable children, we need to go beyond preschools. High quality caregiving must be supported both in homes and in early learning centres to build strong foundations for young girls and boys. Moreover, rural, linguistic minority and refugee children need urgent support as they are falling behind. Save the Children works to address these gaps through targeted interventions, such as early learning programmes that support children’s learning at home in emergency and post-disaster settings, among remote and nomadic communities, and in areas where preschools are not available or accessible.
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Nurturing Care: A foundation for Cambodia's future
What is the Nurturing Care Framework (NCF)? What is Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)? Read this factsheet to learn about the operationalization of the NCF in Cambodia.
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Big leaps of success, one word at a time in Zaskok, Ferizaj
Read the success story of Nart, who was diagnosed with speech delay, but who has been able to receive help through Save the Children's Early Childhood Care and Development Center in Zaskok.
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Where it all Begins: Early childhood education for equal opportunities
Quality early childhood education (0-3 years) is very important for the development of children's cognitive and socio-emotional skills. High costs, bureaucracy, political-organizational issues and ideological-cultural beliefs are problems that make access
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The Best Start: Inequality and opportunities in the first years of life
Educational poverty is defined as the deprivation of the ability to learn, experiment, develop and freely develop skills, talents and aspirations. Early childhood represents a crucial period in the child's life, it is the moment when one begins to know an
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Adding a Nutrition Behavior Change Communication Component to an Early Childhood Development Intervention in Malawi
The Nutrition Embedded Evaluation Program Impact Evaluation (NEEP-IE) cluster randomized control trial (CRCT) aimed to assess the effectiveness of implementing an agriculture and nutritional intervention through preschools, known as community-based child
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Collaborative Change: Leveraging international IDELA partnerships to benefit young children
Achieving access, equity and quality in early childhood programs is hindered by a lack of robust evidence from implementation research and impact evaluations, knowledge brokering and collaborative partnerships between communities of research, practice and
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Make Childcare Work: Three steps to improving childcare support in Universal Credit
Investing in the childcare support offered through Universal Credit is a critical way to remove the barriers holding parents and children back. It has real potential to increase parental employment by targeting support for those most likely to be out of w
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Good Soil Good Fruit: Nurturing Cambodia's youngest
Early Childhood Development (ECD) can be understood as a process that starts at conception and continues through around the age of 8 years old. During this critical period the foundational architecture of the brain is constructed, as children develop moto
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Early Childhood Programming and School Readiness in Anganwadi Centers in India
The Early Childhood Care and Education intervention of Save the Children in Bengaluru aimed to bring about qualitative changes in Anganwadis to improve learning levels of children through integrated intervention in the domains of health, nutrition, hygien
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Advancing the Right to Read in Rwanda: Final evaluation report
In early 2012, the education system in Rwanda has experienced a learning crisis. There was insufficient access to early childhood education, children were entered primary school ill-prepared to learn, and left unable to read. In response to these challeng
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Common Approaches in the Pipeline: Building Brains
The first years of a child's life are the most crucial years in their development—90% of brain development takes place before the age of five. Children who do not receive adequate care during these important years are more likely to struggle later in life
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The Right Start: Investing in early years of education
In order to provide quality preschooling for children living in urban slums, evidence generation is critical to understanding the opportunities and constraints. In this context, Save the Children partnered with the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (C