Nurturing Care consists of five inter-related and indivisible components: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving and opportunities for learning. In the first years of life, parents, intimate family members and caregivers are the closest to the young child and thus the best providers of Nurturing Care. This is why secure family environments are important for young children.
The second draft of the document is now out for global consultation (www.nurturing-care.org). The online consultation closes on March 28th, 2018. Reply to survey.
Read more about the World Health Organization Nurturing Care Framework for Early Child Development.
The Framework (WHO, 2018) builds upon state-of-the art evidence of how child development unfolds and of the effective policies and interventions that can improve early childhood development. It outlines:
- why efforts to improve health and wellbeing must begin in the earliest years, from pregnancy to age 3;
- the major threats to early childhood development;
- how nurturing care protects young children from the worst effects of adversity and promotes physical, emotional and cognitive development;
- what families and caregivers need to provide nurturing care for young children.
The Framework describes how a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach can promote and strengthen the Nurturing Care of young children, what the guiding principles for doing so are, and what strategic actions are needed, and the monitoring of targets and milestones that are essential to progress. (Source: WHO, 2018)
