Systems Thinking for Early Childhood Development
The Systems Thinking initiative is a partnership between ECDAN and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It aims to integrate systems thinking approaches in the field of child development.
About the Issue
Early childhood development (ECD) is inherently complex and intersectoral. Children’s early development is influenced by a variety of factors, such as access to quality health care, nutrition, responsive caregiving and stimulation, safe and secure home environments, early education, caregiver well-being, and development policies. Traditionally, the ECD field employs a single-point intervention approach that does not recognize the systemic factors that impact child development and is thus insufficient to address inequity and promote healthy development of children living in vulnerable environments at scale.
Systems thinking holds the potential to accelerate ECD at scale equitably and sustainably. Broadly speaking, systems thinking aims to improve understanding of a whole—its parts, its interactions, the interconnectedness between components, and the interdependencies. However, the systems-thinking approach has been notably lacking within the global dialogue around the scaling up and promotion of ECD programs.
Learn more about how systems mapping can be applied to strengthen the provision of childcare.
What is Systems Thinking for ECD?
The Systems Thinking for Early Childhood Development initiative, a partnership between ECDAN and Harvard University with support from Porticus, aims to integrate systems-thinking approaches in the field of child development to support the scaling of interventions sustainably and equitably. To achieve this, the systems team is engaged in efforts to advance the state of knowledge and practice, build capacity, and amplify advocacy messages in the field by facilitating learning exchanges and collaboration, hosting dialogues and learning events, producing global knowledge products, and working closely with local partners to test systems solutions. The key target audience includes policymakers, program designers and implementers, researchers, donors, and advocates. The initiative has adopted a phased approach across the following workstreams:
Systems approaches have been well-developed and practiced across sectors like agriculture, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and health, to name a few. However, there is limited knowledge of how to integrate these approaches into child development. To address this gap, the team undertakes research activities, including landscape reviews and qualitative studies, to explore effective strategies to integrate systems-thinking approaches in child development.
Integrating systems approaches in child development requires innovative methods to shift the existing funding landscape toward systems-centric funding models. To achieve this, the team conducts individual donor consultations and facilitates donor dialogues to document the experience of systems donors, explore systems investment strategies, and understand and mitigate potential risks in systems investments in the ECD landscape.
Measuring systems change is complex, and there is an urgent need in the field for appropriate data and indicators to measure systemic change. We are currently consolidating existing systems measurement frameworks, tools, approaches, and methods and drawing out their implications for ECD, as well as hosting virtual capacity building learning sessions on systems thinking and evaluation.
Systems tools, frameworks, and approaches for the field of child development need to be localized, adapted, and tested across various contexts for validation and wider use. Through the systems design and implementation workstream, we work closely with local partners, policymakers, experts, and other stakeholders to test and validate different systems tools (including systems maps), facilitate learning exchange through webinars and workshops, and document case studies and examples across sectoral systems. Our ongoing work includes a deep exploration and understanding of humanitarian ECD systems, childcare systems, and parenting systems across low- and middle-income countries.
Achievements of the Systems Thinking Initiative
Since the start of the initiative in 2021, ECDAN partners have collaborated to co-create a variety of resources that aim to advance understanding and application of a systems-thinking approach for the benefit of young children. This has included:
- A childcare systems map that is a visual tool that illustrates the current dynamics that influence the provision of and access to quality childcare. The map developed is global baseline that is meant to be adapted to different contexts.
- A report exploring childcare systems in Mongolia and opportunities for impact investing.
- A masterclass series that included 14 free, 90-minute sessions to break down different systems concepts and applications. Session recordings remain available.
- A repository of systems tools that explores their potential application for the field of ECD.
- A case study from Bangladesh exploring how systems approaches may be applied to support ECD provision in emergency settings.
- A report unpacking systems thinking from an ECD perspective.
- An evidence review of potential applications of systems thinking to scale efforts to improve ECD outcomes for all children.
The Collaborative
At the current stage of the Systems Thinking for ECD initiative, advancing understanding and application of systems approaches for young children is being driven by ECDAN’s Systems Thinking for ECD Collaborative. This group was formed in 2023 and is made up of executive leaders and technical experts from leading child development and systems thinking organizations in Africa and Asia. The Collaborative members work together to:
- Strengthen the capacity of local partners and government bodies.
- Facilitate learning exchange and collaboration
- Convene technical experts and thought leaders.
- Support research and advocacy efforts to inform policy and practice.