Can Systems Thinking Help Us to Accelerate Recovery for Early Child Development?
Jan 2023 – In the face of contemporary global challenges to child development, both pre and postpandemic, business as usual approaches are inadequate to promote equitable early child development (ECD). To build back better, we need to build back differently in efforts to accelerate progress towards equitable developmental opportunities for children.
Child development, which is inherently dynamic, ecological and intersectoral, is fundamentally about complex systems. However, typically approaches to promotion of ECD at scale have focused on single programmes or interventions which have failed to deliver on impact or be sustained.
A deliberate shift towards more systemic approaches to implementation of evidence-based ECD interventions holds promise for strengthening weak and fragmented systems, which support children and families.
Exploration of lessons learned from other disciplines where systemic approaches to implementation at scale are already embedded may facilitate codesign, implementation and evaluation of systems innovations relevant to ECD.