Early Childhood Development: A Critical Investment

This free video course was designed for policymakers and decision-makers working in fields related to early childhood development such as in health and nutrition, education, child protection, agriculture and food security, WASH, or emergency preparedness.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Nurturing Care
• Summarise the scientific and economic evidence for investing in ECD
• Recognise the components of Nurturing Care in ECD and ECD policymaking
• Select five essential strategies for supporting Nurturing Care
• Identify how ECD can be integrated into broader policy frameworks, such as health, education, and social services
• Reflect on local ECD approaches, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and propose actionable strategies for improving ECD programmes in communities

This video course was produced as part of the Aga Khan Foundation’s Early Childhood Development programme.

The course draws on content from the Nurturing Care Framework, the Science of Early Child Development, and the Beginning of Life film.

This 90-minute course is also available in Khmer, Lao, and Mongolian.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License. To view a copy of this license, go here.