In this Commentary, authors Saverio Bellizzi, Lori McDougall, Sheila Manji, and Ornella Lincetto discuss how growing recognition of the need for coordinated support for newborns in humanitarian settings led Save the Children, UNICEF, UNHCR, and WHO to develop a seminal mapping of actions to ensure that babies and mothers survive and thrive in emergency contexts.

In this Commentary, authors Bernadette Daelmans, Mahalakshmi Nair, Fahmy Hanna, Ornella Lincetto, Tarun Dua, and Xanthe Hunt bring attention to the cascading effects of caregivers’ mental health for children’s development and outline an agenda for interagency priority-setting and research to support mothers’ and newborns’ mental wellbeing.

In this Commentary, authors Xanthe Hunt, Theresa Betancourt, Laura Pacione, Mayada Elsabbagh, and Chiara Servili present the principles that should guide action to support children with developmental disorders and other disabilities and make recommendations for programming, policy, and future research.

In this review of Collaborative Cross-Cultural Research Methodologies in Early Care and Education Contexts, edited by Samara Madrid Akpovo, Mary Jane Moran, and Robyn Brookshire, Amy Jo Dowd highlights the practical lessons that this edited volume offers for conducting ECD research that is mindful of context, positionality, relationship, and reciprocity across cultures.

In this review of Early Childhood Development in Humanitarian Crises: South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda by Sweta Shah, Kate Schwartz highlights how Shah draws from a rich variety of disciplines, contexts, and frames to provide a comprehensive picture of ECD in humanitarian settings: its potential, its limitations, and its critical role for children living in crisis and conflict.

This special issue of JEiE contributes to a small but growing body of research evidence and lessons from programming implementation about early childhood development (ECD) in emergencies and humanitarian contexts.