Do biomarkers have a place in human developmental research in the Majority World?

While commonly used in medicine, public health, and nutrition their application in developmental and educational science has remained contested.

In our new paper in Child Development Perspectives, we draw on both our own work and the field’s collective experience to examine the ethical considerations and practical challenges of conducting biomarker research responsibly in low-resource and conflict-affected settings in the Majority World.

We argue that, when implemented thoughtfully, biomarkers can meaningfully complement traditional developmental measures and deepen our understanding of how adversity becomes biologically embedded. The paper offers a roadmap for integrating biomarker data into developmental science while remaining grounded in ethics and cultural context.

On January 9, 2026, our Director, Florencia Lopez Boo, joined a World Bank panel discussion “Quién cría a nuestros hijos, cómo el tiempo digital influye en aprender, jugar y crecer” as part of their broader initiative on early childhood education and digital environments, aiming to ground public debate and policy decisions in research rather than fear, hype, or one-size-fits-all prescriptions. Florencia Lopez Boo contributed an evidence-based perspective on young children’s learning and development in increasingly digital contexts.

The event convened researchers and policy leaders to examine how digital exposure is reshaping early childhood at home, in education systems, and across broader care environments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The recording of the webinar “Quién cría a nuestros hijos, cómo el tiempo digital influye en aprender, jugar y crecer,” organized by The World Bank, is now available online.

On February 5, 2026 Florencia Lopez Boo, Director of Global TIES for Children, spoke on a virtual panel convened as an official side event of the 64th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development.

The discussion focused on how integrated social protection and early childhood care and education can better safeguard children’s rights and support more just and resilient societies, particularly in contexts of crisis and displacement. Florencia shared experiences from a collaboration between Global TIES for Children, GHESKIO, and IDB to pilot an adaptation of a remote early learning program for children in Haiti, whose school is often disrupted because of political violence and unrest.

Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing short profiles of the 20 scholars participating in LEARN, a global community of researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of early childhood development, systems change, and social justice. Every two weeks, we’ll spotlight one scholar’s path, questions, and work on the ground.

We’re pleased to kick off the series with Paola Balanta Cobo Mag. Psic - PhD, a Senior Interdisciplinary Researcher in Human Development, Education, and Rights and the field leader for the JUNTOS por la Prioridad Program in Colombia, a collaborative initiative focused on strengthening care systems and positioning early childhood development as a national and local priority.

Paola’s path into research was intentional and deeply rooted in lived experience. From an early age, she worked alongside families, children, and young people in communities shaped by inequality and armed conflict. Those experiences continue to inform the questions that drive her work today: how agency, resilience, and creativity are nurtured in vulnerable contexts.

Her research is intergenerational in nature and strongly emphasizes the promotion of exchange between youth, early childhood, and the pedagogical practices that exist at the intersection of institutional contexts. It sits at the intersection of psychology, education, and social justice - transforming everyday care and creativity into eco-pedagogies and community initiatives grounded in local resources, intergenerational relationships, and emotional co-regulation.

In our conversation, Paola reflects on how these early experiences shaped her research agenda and how they continue to guide her commitment to early childhood development and systems-level change.

Research on father engagement is heavily focused on Western families. Western-based programs to support fathers often do so in an individualistic manner, failing to address cultures in places where collective care is common. Limited existing research on fathers’ involvement in play emphasizes the influence of income and working status on fathers’ views on play. Overall, there is very little research on fathers' perceptions of play in refugee contexts, and there is no extensive study exploring this topic in the Rohingya context. In this context of forced displacement, we ask the following research question about the Rohingya fathers' perceptions of play.

Research Question:

How do fathers perceive children’s play in both structured (Humanitarian Play Labs) as well as unstructured (home and surrounding areas) play settings in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh?

We're excited that the latest article from our iRRRd prenatal birth cohort in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh is now out! See the post below for details. This paper adds important evidence on maternal health care access in humanitarian settings, drawing on data from our ongoing study in Cox's Bazar.

The paper reflects a close collaboration between early-career scholars, senior researchers, and field teams, and highlights how context-specific constraints—particularly mobility and timing—shape antenatal care use even where services are widely available.

Congratulations to Daniel Simon, Duja Michael, @Md. Sajjadur Rahman, Caroline Hiott, AK Rahim, Kazi Istiaque Sanin, Fahmida Tofail, Alice Wuermli and everyone who contributed to this work.

We’re glad to see this paper out in the world and contributing to ongoing conversations about how to strengthen maternal health systems for displaced and crisis-affected populations.