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About ECD Parenting Toolkit

What is ECD Parenting Toolkit?

Why use the ECD Parenting toolkit?

How to use the ECD Parenting Toolkit?

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Resources and Information

Programme Cycle Phase

Planning

Design

Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation

Uptake and Scale

Integrated Parenting Approach

Enabling Environment

Workforce

Awareness

Gender

Participation

Nurturing Care Component

Good Health

Adequate Nutrition

Safety and Security

Early Learning

Responsive Care

Parenting programme database

Illustrative examples

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How to use

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What is the ECD Parenting Toolkit?

Why use the ECD Parenting Toolkit?

To reach their full potential, children need the five inter-related and indivisible components of nurturing care: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving and opportunities for learning. In the first years of life, parents, intimate family members, and caregivers are the closest to the young child and, thus, the best providers of nurturing care. This is why secure family environments are important for young children. In order to provide caregivers with time and resources to provide nurturing care, policies, services and community supports need to be in place.



Refers to the health and well-being of the children and their caregivers. Why both? Because we know that caregivers’ physical and mental health can affect their ability to care for a child. For good health, young children need caregivers to: respond affectionately and well to their daily needs; be hygienic and minimize infections; protect them from danger at home and outside; use health services, both promotive and preventive; give them the right treatment when they are ill; monitor how they are, physically and emotionally; and make sure they get enough physical activity and sleep. 

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Refers to maternal and child nutrition. Why both? We know that the mother’s nutritional status during pregnancy affects her unborn child’s health and well-being, as well as her own. And after the birth, the mother’s nutritional status affects her ability to provide adequate care. From birth to the age of 6 months, babies flourish on exclusive breastfeeding. After that, they need complementary foods, diverse and often, containing the micronutrients to support their rapidly growing bodies and brains. 

Refers to the ability of the parent/caregiver to notice, understand, and respond to their child's signals in a timely and appropriate manner. It is considered the foundational component because responsive caregivers are better able to support the other four components. Responsive caregiving includes observing and responding to children’s movements, sounds, gestures and verbal requests. It is the basis for: protecting children against injury and the negative effects of adversity; recognizing and responding to illness; enriched learning through enjoyable interactions; building trust and social relationships. 

Refers to safe and secure environments for children and their families. It addresses physical dangers, emotional stress, environmental risks, and access to food and water. To feel secure and safe, young children need: access to nutritious food; access to clean water and sanitation; clean indoor and outdoor air; good hygiene; safe spaces to play; protection from physical punishment, mental or emotional abuse, and neglect. Risks to children include extreme poverty, financial hardship, air pollution, toxic chemicals, unsafe play environments, lack of internet/online safety, harsh punishment, and violence. 

Refers to any opportunity for the baby, toddler, or child to interact with a person, place, or object in their environment. Recognizes that every interaction (positive or negative, or absence of an interaction) is contributing to the child’s brain development and laying the foundation for later learning. Learning begins at conception, and as soon as babies are born, they begin to acquire skills socially, through their interactions with other people – smiling and eye contact, talking and singing, modelling and imitation, and simple games like “wave bye-bye”. 

UNICEF's Vision for Elevating Parenting outlines five approaches for strengthening integrated parenting support: i) strengthening enabling environments; ii) supporting strengthened workforce capacities and integrated services; iii) raising levels of awareness among communities; iv) promoting positive gender norms and socialization; and v) empowering parents and communities and encouraging participation. 

Strengthening enabling environments: Refers to the social, political, budgetary, normative, and institutional determinants necessary to achieve results. It is critical to understand evolving cultural contexts, including the economic drivers and socio-political contextual factors that influence parenting uptake and delivery at scale. Illustrative examples of entry points and actions include implementation of family-friendly policies, inclusion of financing for parenting programmes in national and subnational budgets, and the development of cross-sectoral data dashboards on parenting with National Statistical Commissions.

Supporting strengthened workforce capacities and integrated services: Refers to building skills of front-line health, nutrition, education, social services workers and child-care providers to support parents and strengthen systems. Front-line workers include informal workers, paraprofessionals and those working in government and businesses. Illustrative examples of supporting workforce capacities and integrated services include the inclusion of parenting support in pre-service and in-service front-line worker training packages and professional development opportunities; and inclusion of parenting support in systems strengthening implementation plans and budgets of relevant sectors, etc. 

Raising levels of awareness: Refers to bolstering innovative engagement through digital parenting platforms, targeted campaigns, and special events. Illustrative examples include dissemination of parenting messages and information to communities via platforms such as the Internet of Good Things (IOGT), UNICEF’s Parenting Hub, mobile applications (e.g., Bebbo), radio, television, and text messaging platforms. 

Promoting gender norms and socialization: Refers to supporting parents and caregivers, front-line workers and girls and boys with resources and opportunities to address discriminatory gender dynamics within households and to create positive, nurturing households that are gender responsive. Such support includes building awareness and skills of parents and caregivers and training of front-line workers; encouraging male caregiving through community engagement and social and behavior change strategies; and ending gender-based violence and physical discipline to create nurturing household environments. It also includes strengthening engagement with governments and the private sector to influence parental policies, social protection programmes, service delivery systems, positive gender norms, and workplace polices that are gender responsive and family-friendly.

Empowering children, parents, and communities and encouraging participation: Refers to the promotion of safe and meaningful participation of children within their families and communities, and enhancing agency and social and behavioral change through parent engagement and disability-inclusive and gender-transformative approaches. Specific actions include building stronger relations between parents/caregivers and parenting networks, peer-to-peer parent networks, and other platforms and organizations to promote conversation, messaging, knowledge exchange and collaboration around parenting. It also includes engaging parents as partners and making them aware of available parenting support interventions, which will help shift social and cultural norms that can influence individual and collective behaviors related to parents’ uptake of interventions and continued engagement. 

The parenting programme cycle includes 5 key phases outlined in this section. These include programme: i) planning, ii) design, iii) implementation, iv) monitoring and evaluation, and v) uptake and scaling. While each phase is presented as distinct, they are interrelated and include some areas of overlap. 

Planning effective, data-driven quality parenting programmes involves several key steps including conducting a needs assessment, identifying parents’ current circumstances using data such as household surveys, mapping the existing landscape of parenting support (e.g., existing services and policies). To ensure a targeted and well-informed programme, it is necessary to clearly identify the end-users of the programme and involve them and other key stakeholders in the planning of the programme. Additionally, recommendations from prior evaluations and assessments should be reflected in the programme planning process, and key considerations regarding the financing and sustainability of the programme should be made during this stage. 

Designing a parenting programme involves several essential steps, including defining the programme objectives and theory of change, developing the programme content (e.g., subject matter development, content sources, and content messages), and specifying the programme delivery mode, dosage, location, and alignment with the needs of the participants. Ensuring the reliability and validity of the parenting programme’s design are critical in ensuring that objectives are met as expected. 

The implementation of a parenting programme is informed by key pre-implementation considerations covered in the planning and design phases.  It involves several key steps, including identifying and training the “parenting workforce”, enhancing demand generation among parents and community members, and piloting and adapting the programme based on contextual factors and findings. Importantly, the implementation phase should include monitoring and evaluation and the establishment of feedback loops to ensure ongoing programme improvements. Finally, implementation should inform the development of detailed plans for scaling-up the programme and ensuring sustainability. 

Monitoring is essential in parenting programmes for tracking and evaluating the design programme's effectiveness. It involves identifying valid and reliable measures to assess the programme's effectiveness and progress toward parenting goals. This step consists of building a monitoring framework with an evaluation plan (e.g., randomized control trials, developmental, mixed-method evaluations) to assess the direct and indirect parenting programme outcomes and establish improvements based on findings. Additionally, it includes identifying and addressing gaps and building on local monitoring capabilities through training.

Ensuring uptake and scaling of parenting programmes involves considering both supply-side factors (e.g., programme characteristics such as programme requirements, formats, delivery platforms etc.) as well as the demand side factors (e.g., policy and contextual affordances, as well as personal characteristics, skills and motivations). The scale-up phase also involves ensuring cost-effectiveness (e.g., via a cost-effectiveness analysis), efficacy (e.g., via an effectiveness study to ensure that the programme is still effective when scaled), and sustainability (e.g., through integration into existing platforms). Recognizing that one size does not fit all, it is also critical to ensure that the programme addresses the unique and diverse needs and circumstances of parents to enable successful uptake.  


Welcome to the Early Childhood Development Parenting Toolkit

Introduction