Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity Newsletter, Volume 5

A Report on the Programs, Policies, and People Making an Impact

Volume 5: Spring 2023

FROM THE DESK OF THE SPECIAL ADVISOR FOR CHILDREN IN ADVERSITY

Rebecca Levy, U.S. Government Special Advisor on Children in Adversity

In February, USAID announced the appointment of Rebecca Levy as the U.S. Government Special Advisor for Children in Adversity. As Special Advisor, Ms. Levy will lead the implementation of the U.S. government’s Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity (APCCA) Strategy, which outlines a whole-of-government commitment and approach to investing in the development, care, dignity, and safety of the world’s most vulnerable children and their families. She will assume responsibility for the legislative mandates set forth in the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act and the Global Child Thrive Act, which calls for the Special Advisor to lead a coordinated, comprehensive, and effective government response to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, and to improve early

childhood development outcomes globally. Ms. Levy has served in numerous roles at USAID, including with USAID/Haiti responding to the 2010 earthquake, as an Advisor to the USAID Administrator, as the Director of USAID/Cote d’Ivoire's Economic Growth Office, USAID’s Liaison to the African Development Bank, and Acting USG Special Advisor for Children in Adversity. In addition to her APCCA coordination efforts, Ms. Levy serves as the Director of the Inclusive Development Hub within USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI).

“The work carried out by the APCCA team continues to be a priority for the U.S. government and for me, personally. The challenges we face are great, but so is the impact we can have when we bring evidence, expertise, and dedication to supporting the world’s most vulnerable children. I’m honored to be part of this extraordinary effort and humbled by the appointment.” — Rebecca Levy

QUARTERLY SPOTLIGHTS: IMPLEMENTING THE GLOBAL CHILD THRIVE ACT

The Global Child Thrive Act (GCTA) is a bipartisan law passed in January 2021 that requires USAID and other U.S. government agencies to integrate early childhood development into their programs. USAID’s investments across the health and education sectors are crucial for early childhood development. However, health, nutrition, and access to schooling alone are insufficient to promote the social, emotional, and cognitive development children need to thrive. More than 80 percent of brain development takes place during the first three years of life. Extensive research on the economic benefits of high-quality early childhood development programs, particularly for marginalized and underserved children, has found that programs can deliver a potential 13 percent return on investment annually through childhood and adulthood.

Keep reading to learn how USAID, which coordinates the Thrive Act’s implementation, is supporting other government agencies in carrying out the law, and how USAID’s own programs promote inclusive early childhood development!

USAID Releases Implementation Guidance for the Global Child Thrive Act

In March, USAID’s Children in Adversity team, released Implementation Guidance for the law. The guidance identifies cross-sectoral opportunities to enhance USAID programs and platforms through evidence-based approaches to improve child development outcomes. Primarily, these approaches focus on support that will enable parents and other caregivers to employ nurturing care practices that promote optimal child development, with particular attention paid to the needs of children with disabilities and their families.

Integrated Early Childhood Development staff assessing a child using the CB-MDAT at a house in Meanchey Commune, Cambodia. Credit: Say Sokheap

Five USAID Initiatives to Advance Inclusive Early Childhood Development

As we enter the second year of implementation under the Global Child Thrive Act (GCTA), we took a look at five USAID initiatives that are advancing inclusive early childhood development worldwide.

GUIDANCE, REPORTS, AND STRATEGIES

WHO Releases “Guidelines on Parenting Interventions to Prevent Maltreatment and Enhance Parent–Child Relationships with Children Aged 0–17 Years”

Child maltreatment is a global public health problem that can have detrimental and long-lasting effects on children’s development and health. It occurs most frequently at the hands of parents and caregivers. These guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations on interventions for parents and caregivers of children aged 0–17 years that are designed to reduce child maltreatment and harsh parenting, enhance the parent–child relationship, and prevent poor parent mental health and child emotional and behavioral problems. The guidelines are relevant to low-, middle- and high-income countries and are intended for a wide audience, including policymakers, development agencies and implementing partners, government health and social workers, and nongovernmental organizations.

WHO Global Scales for Early Development

In February, the World Health Organization initiated the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) to measure child development for children at birth to age 3. This tool is designed for use at the population or group level and provides a globally relevant, open-source, and easy-to-understand measure for children’s development. There is ongoing work to connect the GSED with other tools for older children.

Click on the button below for more information about the GSED tool!

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: UNICEF GHANA

An officer from the Domestic Violence & Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service is with a young client who experienced violence. © UNI189986

In Ghana, USAID, UNICEF, and seven government ministries have partnered to scale up the Integrated Social Services (ISS) initiative, which is strengthening collaboration among national and regional social welfare, social protection, and health actors to address multidimensional poverty and other vulnerabilities faced by children and families across the country. In 2022, UNICEF scaled up ISS provision to 60 additional districts, raising the total number of ISS-covered districts to 160 out of 261. Biannually, these districts receive funding and technical support to implement integrated district annual action plans, intersectoral standard operating procedures, and multisectoral referrals and service delivery through the digital Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS). This is accompanied by social behavior change and community engagement efforts. Since 2020, 175,245 people, including

95,715 females and 90,473 children, have benefited from ISS. The initiative is bolstering the provision of a range of social welfare, child protection, social protection, and health services, including counseling and psychosocial support, tailored case management and referrals, shelter, and family-based alternative care.

In Bongo, one of the districts covered by the initiative, Mr. John Azam, the local Head of Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, noted, “All key social welfare staff ... have been already trained on how to assist vulnerable children and handle child protection cases ... including sensitive cases, like child sexual abuse, in line with the best interests of a child principle, [and] considering the age, gender, and ability [of the child].”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: APCCA MARKS WORLD SOCIAL WORK MONTH!

Throughout the month of March, USAID’s Children in Adversity team joined the Agency’s Office of HIV/AIDS and Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance to highlight the crucial role social workers play in programming by highlighting stories from USAID’s work to support the global social service workforce, and co-hosted a webinar to celebrate social workers’ contributions to USAID’s global programming.

USAID-supported social workers contribute to advancing health outcomes, achieving and maintaining HIV epidemic control, and strengthening systems for protecting and caring for children, among other USAID priorities. In humanitarian settings in particular, USAID-supported social workers provide life-saving case management and psychosocial support for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), separated or at-risk children, persons with disabilities, and marginalized populations. In 2022, USAID supported nearly six million vulnerable children and their families affected by HIV in 23 countries, including almost 450,000 children and adolescents living with HIV.

Click the button below for resources and tools developed by our partner the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance to help accelerate programming to strengthen the social service workforce.

MEET THE APCCA TEAM: CAT KIRK, TECHNICAL ADVISOR

Cat Kirk, APCCA Senior Technical Advisor

Catherine (“Cat”) Kirk oversees implementation of APCCA’s objective to build strong beginnings through the promotion of cross-sectoral action to improve early childhood development outcomes. Prior to this, Cat was a Senior Early Childhood Development Advisor with Save the Children and the Early Childhood Development Team Lead for USAID’s flagship multisectoral nutrition project, USAID Advancing Nutrition, where she led efforts to promote uptake of holistic and inclusive approaches to support nurturing care through health and nutrition platforms. Cat has previously worked with Partners in Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the World Bank, UNICEF, and other organizations on the design, implementation, and evaluation of health, child development, early intervention, and education programs in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the United States. Cat holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan.

“There has been a lot of progress around supporting early childhood development at USAID in the last several years, and there

is much more that we can achieve for young children and families if we continue to strengthen partnerships across sectors within the Agency, with governments, and with the private sector. I am pleased to join the Children in Adversity at this exciting time and hope to help advance these important efforts.” — Cat Kirk