Early childhood – the period between conception and three years of age – is a crucially important period of life. Young children’s health and nutrition, the care they receive, and the way they are parented, affect not just their childhood wellbeing, but their lifelong physical and mental health and development.

Integration

CRS is a global leader in early childhood development, in 2020 reaching 1.8 million children and their families. Our approach integrates ECD into on-going maternal, child health, and nutrition interventions within existing national and sub-national systems. By collaborating with other service providers, we can share resources – facilities, transportation, and distribution systems – and thereby increase the efficiency of our work. By strengthening the capacity of government ministries and national service providers to implement ECD, we ensure that these programs will be around for a long time to come.

Research

Our ECD work is evidence-based and evidence-generating. Our research partnerships with leading universities allow us to test and learn from our innovations. Thanks to experimental and quasi-experimental studies, we have recently shown that:

• Our lay counselor model is ethical, effective, and of high quality
• Participating in our ECD programs is associated with lower rates of post-partum depression
• Our integrated programs are effective at changing health and parenting behaviors, resulting in healthier children

Cultivating just and peaceful societies is a central part of CRS’ mission, and a priority goal area under our Vision 2030 strategic framework. As much of our work takes place in fragile and conflict-affected countries, we emphasize systematic and deliberate integration of social cohesion and justice approaches across all program sectors. This helps to ensure that we and our local partners consistently reinforce the healthy social relationships and just institutions that support sustainable peace while protecting the most vulnerable.

CRS’ justice and peacebuilding programming strengthens relationships across diverse, often divided groups while also transforming relations between people and the state, market, and traditional authorities to uphold the dignity and wellbeing of each and every person. Working to change institutions while also improving relationships responds directly to the social injustices that often drive violent conflict. CRS and our partners work to prevent violence whenever possible; where violence has already erupted, we mitigate, resolve and transform conflict by strengthening local institutions and indigenous mechanisms for dialogue and reconciliation.

CONTACT INFO
To learn more, contact ECD@crs.org.

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