September 3, 2025 – ECDAN and Grand Challenges Canada hosted a virtual event to launch their landscape report titled Young Children and the Polycrisis: Where to from here? This comprehensive analysis, conducted by leading researchers Mark Tomlinson and Rachael Glaser, presents the stark reality facing vulnerable children worldwide, while charting a bold path forward through systems transformation and innovative approaches to scaling interventions.
The discussion helped attendees do the following:
- Gain comprehensive insights into how converging global crises are specifically affecting young children’s development, health, and well-being.
- Discover what works in early childhood interventions and why traditional scaling approaches are failing.
- Identify priority populations and learn why refugees, children with disabilities, and those in humanitarian settings require immediate, targeted action.
- Understand how the shift from isolated programs to comprehensive, coordinated system redesign delivers sustainable outcomes.
- Explore new frameworks for financing, technology integration, and life-course thinking in ECD programming
