ARNEC is pleased to host the webinar series entitled, 'Nurturing care for young children: seeking solutions for addressing disparities heightened by the impact of COVID-19'.

For this webinar series, the thematic focus will be on health and nutrition, early learning, responsive caregiving, and child safety and security, all of which are dimensions of nurturing care. The series will explore the long-term impact of COVID-19 on these nurturing care components, especially on the most vulnerable groups, and draw out innovations and solutions from the countries as they design and implement their recovery and resiliency plans.

ARNEC aims to mobilise the ECD community in the region, particularly practitioners, policy makers, and advocates at the country level, to share community, local and/or country-level solutions which adapt nurturing care practices and ECD programmes to the current realities and long-term effects of COVID-19.

The third webinar in the series focuses on the status and solutions in promoting responsive caregiving for young children in the Asia-Pacific region during and beyond the pandemic. A special emphasis will also be made on building resilience and the positive bond between caregivers and young children through playful parenting in support of pandemic recovery in the home and community.

The following questions shall be explored:

1. What are the long-term effects of COVID-19 on responsive caregiving and parenting?

2. How do countries and governments strengthen their parenting programs and interventions to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, both short- and long-term?

3. What evidence have we generated to elevate the role of play to support home-based ECD interventions as part of pandemic recovery and to support policy change?

4. What have we learned about parenting education interventions during the pandemic and how do we use these experiences to inform recovery strategies and ECD investments?

5. What evidence-based resources and tools are available to support parents and caregivers as they engage their young children in home-based developmental practices?

Panellists:

1) Dr Jamie M. Lachman, Senior Research Officer at the University of Oxford Department of Social Policy and Intervention and a research fellow at the University of Glasgow MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

2) Dr. Dipu Shakya Education Specialist, UNICEF Nepal

3) Sandipan Paul, Education Specialist, UNICEF Pacific

Moderator: Shikha Jain, Technical Advisor in Plan India and ARNEC Steering Committee member (Core Team Representative)

Click here to read the summary and evaluation report of the webinar. Click here to download the presentation slides deck. The recording of the webinar can be accessed from ARNEC's YouTube Channel .