South Africa’s future depends on its children’s brainpower — and a child’s brain grows fastest in the first few years of life. To help children reach their full potential in those early years, they need nutritious food, early language development through age-appropriate books and responsive caregiving. Yet too many receive few or any of these crucial building blocks. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed from multiple angles, as suggested by the recommendations of the latest Thrive by Five Index.
This learning brief is the first in an issue dedicated to unpacking how early childhood development can be strengthened in South Africa. It looks at what the 2024 Thrive by Five Index tells us about young children’s early development and how DGMT’s pivotal projects have put the recommendations from the Index into action — from thinking about how to best spend budgets to rolling out on-the-ground interventions that can help reduce chronic malnutrition manifesting as stunting, help get children ready to read and do maths, and support parents to give their children the best start through responsive caregiving.
To read this learning brief, download a PDF, or read it magazine-style on ISSUU.
