Peer-reviewed article
Nurturing Care for Young Children under Conditions of Fragility and Conflict
Linda Marleine Richter, Stephen James Lye, Kerrie Proulx ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper discusses nurturing care as a framework to support young children living in conflict zones, displacement settings, and marginalized communities in Angola and Kenya. Nurturing care encompasses health, nutrition, security, responsive caregiving, and early learning opportunities. The authors argue that early childhood development interventions in these fragile contexts can improve child development outcomes and may also contribute to violence reduction and more peaceful communities. The paper reviews the biological and psychological development needs of children and illustrates how nurturing care principles apply in situations of war and displacement.
Key points
- Millions of young children worldwide are living in conflict zones, refugee contexts, and marginalized settlements with unmet needs for early childhood development support
- Nurturing care encompasses five key elements: health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive caregiving, and early learning
- Early childhood development interventions provide long-term benefits and are essential for improving health, development, and well-being in conflict contexts
- Early childhood development interventions may provide a pathway to violence reduction and support more peaceful families, communities, and societies
- The paper illustrates application of nurturing care principles through case studies of war and displacement in Angola and Kenya
Limitations
This is a conceptual paper that reviews principles and illustrates them through case studies, rather than presenting empirical evaluation data. It does not provide quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of specific interventions or rigorous outcome measurements.
Abstract
Forced displacement worldwide is at its highest in decades and millions of young children are living in conflict zones, in transitional or enduring refugee contexts, and in demographically diverse marginalized and informal settlements. There is a huge unmet need for delivering early childhood development interventions to ensure the safety and continued development of young children in these vulnerable contexts. In this paper, we discuss nurturing care as an important entry point for multisectoral collaborations to support families and reach young children. Nurturing care is a basic right of every child and encompasses health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive caregiving, and early learning. We review key elements of the biological and psychological development of children important to nurturing care and illustrate their application in case studies of war and displacement in Angola and Kenya. Building on long-term benefits of early interventions, scaled up support is essential to improve the health, development, and well-being of young children in contexts of conflict, violence, and insecurity. Not only do early childhood development interventions support the development of young children, but they also provide a potential pathway to violence reduction and a way to achieve more peaceful families, communities, and societies.