Early Childhood

father and child playing with a shape sorter toy

Overview

Global TIES for Children’s work on early childhood is organized under the Early Childhood Development in Emergencies and Conflict (ECDEC) initiative. The ECDEC team builds on the foundations of the Millenium Development Goals - which demanded a global focus on increasing child survival rates - and the Sustainable Development Goals - which extended this focus to include the rights of all children not just to survive, but to thrive. The early childhood projects under ECDEC aim to advance a culturally-grounded, robust science for children in their first eight years, starting at conception, who are living in contexts of crisis or conflict, with the aim to ultimately contribute to improving child outcomes.

For young children to truly thrive, they need to be supported by an ecosystem of parents, caregivers, teachers, programs, interventions, and policies that focus on their specific developmental needs. Such programs, interventions, and policies - including those that support parents, caregivers, and teachers - need to be grounded in evidence that is contextually-sensitive, inclusive of targeted beneficiaries, and rigorous in its application.
As such, our work in this area aims to:
- Contribute to a robust and culturally-grounded science in the field of early childhood development
- Employ multi-method and participatory research approaches, engaging in mutual capacity building with our partners
- Conduct work on innovative programming, including multi-generational and lifespan approaches that integrate early childhood with adolescent and adult development
- Advocate for evidence-based policy and practice using a range of communications and engagement strategies
- Create global public goods in the areas of measurement with the aim of systems improvement at scale to enhance early childhood development

Portfolio Highlights

Ahlan Simsim, which means “Welcome Sesame” in Arabic, is the groundbreaking program from Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) with Global TIES for Children serving as an independent evaluator. Through this work, we aim to measure the impact of various aspects of not only the mass media intervention of Ahlan Simsim but also research projects focused on the delivery of at-home services featuring innovative research methods developed due to the onset of COVID-19 and the necessary program and research project adaptations.

Explore Ahlan Simsim
Play to Learn is an innovative large-scale initiative from Global TIES for Children, the LEGO Foundation, Sesame Workshop, BRAC, and the International Rescue Committee that harnesses the power of play to deliver critical early learning opportunities to children and caregivers affected by conflict and crisis. Through Play to Learn, we work with our partners to evaluate early childhood development (ECD) programs in the Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh with the Rohingya and in parts of Colombia with Venezuelan refugees. In addition, we are conducting a longitudinal prenatal birth cohort study with the Rohingya living in the Camps and neighboring host community members to understand the many factors that influence child outcomes.

Explore Play To Learn
Phase I of the PLAY project, conducted in partnership with RTI and with the support of the LEGO Foundation, was to develop and test instruments to measure adult support for child learning through play in centers and schools, as well as homes. Phase II, which began in early 2023, is a three-year project to collaborate with a set of implementing partners across a variety of contexts to adapt, test, and validate the tools for wider application and use.
Explore Playful Learning Across the Years

Spotlight

Global TIES for Children Co-Director, Hirokazu Yoshikawa Receives SRCD’S 2023 Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy and Practice in Child Development Award

Hirokazu Yoshikawa has been awarded a 2023 Biennial Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy and Practice in Child Development Award by the Society for Research in Child Development. The award is given in recognition of an individual’s continuous lifetime contributions to research that informs policy and practice for the benefit of children. Learn more in this blog post.