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Nascent RDO convenes webinar on Early Childhood Development: Advancing investments for every child
Posted on: 27th February, 2025 By: NRDO Uganda 8 min readNascent Research and Development Organization (Nascent RDO-U) led a high-level webinar on Thursday, 27 February 2025 to galvanize investments in Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Uganda. Held online in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), AfriChild, UNICEF, TECEC, International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI) and local government representatives, the event brought together policymakers, practitioners, researchers, donors and civil society to review progress, surface persistent barriers and agree practical entry points for scaling quality ECD services.
The webinar opened with a clear call: with almost one-third of Uganda’s population under age eight, national ambitions, such as the 2040 middle-income vision, are unattainable without urgent, sustained investment in early learning, health, nutrition and child protection. Organisers framed the conversation around evidence and community experience, highlighting how focused, locally-led interventions can deliver measurable gains for families and children.
Nascent RDO-U used the platform to showcase practical programming under its Foundation for the Future project where they partner with ICDI and funded by Stichting Dioraphte, Weeshuis der Doopsgezinden in Haarlem and other donors. Project staff described two complementary models that have produced strong community traction:
- Play Hubs: community learning spaces that combine play-based early stimulation with parenting support and linkages to social services. To date, Play Hub activities have reached 3,172 parents and children, including 1,678 children across 807 households in targeted communities.
- Home Visiting: regular, structured visits to households, targeting caregivers, that have driven improvements in maternal health seeking, child nutrition, early stimulation and protection practices. Nascent RDO-U highlighted how these visits strengthen caregiver capacity and deepen local accountability by routinely sharing quarterly project reports with Iganga District officials.
Evidence from Iganga: norms, barriers and community assets
Barbra Odongo, who works as the Programme Manager for Social Protection at Nascent RDO-U presented findings from a May 2024 norms study that was carried out in Iganga district, released as a three-volume policy brief series. Key findings included:
- Uneven service delivery and widening inequalities in ECD access across communities, with rural areas disproportionately underfunded.
- Social norms and caregiving practices that limit children’s learning opportunities, examples include beliefs that adults should not discuss educational matters with children, and local disciplinary practices that favour work over play-based learning.
- Barriers to maternal and child health such as transport challenges, financial constraints and continued reliance on traditional remedies, factors that delay or reduce formal health service use.
- Strong informal learning channels: over half of children access church-based or community-led child stimulation activities; extended families and faith institutions play a pivotal role in caregiving and could be strategic partners for ECD scale-up.
- Protection concerns including high reports of domestic violence and sexual abuse in some communities, early marriage limiting girls’ education, and child labour in agricultural settings.
Cross-sector reflections and policy implications
Panelists from AfriChild, UNICEF, TECEC, MGLSD, ICDI and local government officials reflected on the implications of Nascent RDO-U’s findings. The discussion underscored several convergent points:
- Invest in community systems: Effective ECD requires shifting resources not only to facilities but to community-based platforms that reach the hardest-to-serve households.
- Integrate services: Nutrition, health, protection and early learning must be delivered in an integrated manner so families receive a coherent package of support.
- Harness local actors: Faith institutions, community volunteers and extended families are trusted entry points for behaviour change and early stimulation interventions.
- Address normative barriers: Social and gender norms that restrict children’s learning, constrain maternal health care seeking and normalize harmful practices should be addressed through culturally sensitive community dialogue and local leadership engagement.
- Strengthen local government partnerships: Routine reporting and collaborative planning between NGOs and district authorities is essential for sustainability and potential scale-up into government systems.
Nascent RDO-U’s call to action
Throughout the webinar, Nascent RDO-U emphasised the urgent need for predictable financing and policy attention to ECD, especially in rural, underserved communities. The organisation urged donors, government agencies and partner NGOs to prioritize investment in low-cost, high-impact community approaches such as play hubs and structured home-visiting programmes, and to adopt the study’s policy recommendations into district and national ECD plans.
Looking ahead
Nascent RDO-U announced plans to continue partnering with Iganga District to expand proven approaches, adapt programming to address protection risks, and use its policy briefs to advocate for more equitable ECD resource allocation. The organisation invited stakeholders to join collaborative efforts to pilot locally-led scale-up strategies and to integrate the study’s recommendations into formal planning cycles.
For enquiries, resources or to access Nascent RDO-U’s policy briefs and project reports, please contact Nascent Research and Development Organization via the contact page.
This article was prepared from presentations and materials shared during the Early Childhood Development webinar held on 27 February 2025.
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