Improving Humanitarian Health Responses for Children through Nurturing Care

Abstract

Children are disproportionately impacted by humanitarian disasters, which cause toxic stress. When a crisis overwhelms the capacity of health and social systems to meet the needs of a population, external crisis response teams working in a range of sectors may offer support to save lives and meet the affected populations’ basic needs. Gaps have been identified in health sector interventions for children in humanitarian contexts, including lack of routine interventions to protect and promote early child development (ECD). To address this gap and improve the quality of humanitarian responses for girls and boys, the Global Health Cluster, Child Health Task Force, and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies held a webinar series on Strengthening Nurturing Care in Humanitarian Response. It concluded that incorporating interventions to support nurturing care for ECD into health responses in acute phase emergencies is lifesaving. In crisis contexts, even simple interventions can be the difference between life and death, and when systematically applied, they can dramatically improve a child’s life opportunities as well as national recovery and economic growth.