Implementation Research and Practice for Early Childhood Development

1. Implementation Research and Practice for Early Childhood Development Aisha k. Yousafzai (Harvard T.H. Chan SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH) & Dana c. mcCOY (HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION) April 5th2019

2. A Story of Success • Evidence-based advocacy has facilitated growth of national multi-sectoral policies to promote Early Childhood Development (Black et al., Lancet, 2017). • Evidence from multiple disciplines (neurobiology, economics, psychology, health) suggests: • Start early • Provide multiple protective inputs to promote nurturing care and mitigate risks • Support both children and caregivers • Boost development across the life course • Parenting and early childhood education interventions have a consistent, positive effect on cognitive development (Aboud & Yousafzai, Annual Review of Psychology of the 2015; Britto et al., Lancet 2017).

3. What further evidence do we need to effectively translate evidence to practice? • For which children do interventions work effectively? • How do culture and context influence the effectiveness of interventions? • What are the mechanisms through which interventions are most effective? • What are the essential components of a high quality parenting intervention or early learning intervention? • How can we better use the neurobiological sciences to inform interventions in the early years (e.g., components of bundled interventions)? • How can we use the current knowledge to inform intervention strategies across the life course to support long term outcomes? • Do we have all the measurement tools we require to evaluate impact, implementation, and progress?

4. How do we ensure services reach all young children and their caregivers? E.g., Two-thirds of 3-4 year olds have no access to early childhood care and education services (McCoy et al., 2016)

5. Goal 1, Target 1.2: Halve poverty Goal 2, Target 2.2.: End hunger Goal 3, Target 3.2: End preventable deaths of newborns and under-fives. Goal 4, Target 4.2: Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education. Goal 16, Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

6. The Nurturing Care Framework: A Road Map for Multisectoral Approaches to ECD (May, 2018)

7. Achieving Impact at Scale • Many good programmes cannot demonstrate how they are good, or whether they are good at scale • Many not-so-good programmesthink they are good • Many programmes in the middle need a roadmap for how to get better • Therefore: • What do we need to learn to effectively transition programmes from ‘small to big?’ • What do we need to learn to effectively transition programmes from ‘big to better?’ • What do we need to do to reach all children?

8. The Goals of This Conference

9. Implementation Research and Practice • Dual evidence challenge: • What do we need to do to make our interventions more effective in diverse contexts? • How do we support effective scaling of interventions in systems?

10. Conference Theme: Global Goods • What are the best available “global goods” for supporting ECD globally?  • What goods are needed in the future, and what research questions and study designs are necessary for producing these goods? “Global goods include tools, methods, frameworks, evidence, standards, resources and activities that provide capacity support to multiple countries in planning and implementing quality and equitable ECD. The goods are freely accessible.”

11. Conference Structure: Day 1 • 10:30 – 12:15 PANEL 1: Effective ECD Interventions • 12:15 – 1:30 Lunch and Networking • 1:30 – 3:00 PANEL 2: Scale Case Studies • 3:00 – 3:30 Break • 3:30 – 5:00 PANEL 3: System-Wide Approaches to Support ECD • 5:00 – 6:00 PANEL 4: Promoting ECD in Humanitarian Response Settings • 6:30 Mentoring Dinner

12. Conference Structure: Day 2 • 8:30 – 9:15 Keynote Conversation • 9:15 – 11:00 PANEL 5: Measurement of ECD • 11:00 – 12:30 Lunch and Poster Session • 12:30 – 2:00 PANEL 6: Integrated Packages for Nurturing Care • 2:00 – 2:30 Closing remarks

13. Conference Objectives • Raise awareness regarding current state of ECD field • Connect with others from diverse fields, perspectives around a common mission • Move beyond status quo and identify next steps for improving the lives of children globally • Working paper to outline these goals in concrete ways

14. Housekeeping and Logistics • Please keep the space tidy • Bathrooms are on the ground level to the right of the auditorium, as well as off of the cafeteria • Lunches will be available for pick-up outside of the room • Please direct logistical questions to our team • Social media: Please use #HarvardECD

15. Thank You!

17. Implementation Research and Practice for Early Childhood Development Aisha k. Yousafzai (Harvard T.H. Chan SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH) & Dana c. mcCOY (HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION) April 6th2019

18. Reflections: Existing Global Goods • XXX

19. Reflections: Future Directions • XXX

20. Wrapping Up • How to stay involved • See contact sheet in folders • New Global ECD course coming 2019-2020 academic year • Announcement of Poster Prize

21. Thank You!