Lessons from an Implementation Study of Integration of Early Childhood Development (ECD)Information and Guidance into Well-Child Visits in Primary Healthcare Centers run by Jordan’s Ministry of Health
This study, led by Global TIES for Children at New York University in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) research team, is an implementation study of a new intervention co-designed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Jordan, the IRC, and Sesame Workshop. This intervention seeks to increase families’ access to early childhood development (ECD) information and activities through the expansion of MoH midwife training beyond physical health and nutrition to other aspects of ECD, such as managing child behavioral challenges and supporting early learning, and the incorporation of such additional content into well-child visits for children ages 0 to 5 years old. Visits are conducted primarily by midwives through the Jordanian national health system. In this program, launched summer 2022 and running in over 100 primary health centers in Jordan as of August 2023, the IRC and MoH trained midwives (and occasionally nurses) on the new ECD topics (hereafter referred to as ECD tips) and offered them tools to use in sharing ECD tips and answering questions for caregivers well-child visits.
In order to both better understand and improve the early implementation of this program, we conducted surveys and semi-structured interviews with caregivers and midwives; surveys with center staff; and well-child visit observations at 19 participating health centers in the months following the launch of the program. In 10 of the health centers, the MoH and IRC had also piloted training midwives on how to refer caregivers to a WhatsApp based ECD automated messaging service providing play-based activities that caregivers can do at home with children ages 0 to 5 years to support development. This intervention and study are part of the Ahlan Simsim initiative, a partnership between the IRC and Sesame Workshop that aims to improve ECD services and outcomes for children affected by conflict and crisis in the Middle East region.
Read the full brief here.