This report summarizes the impact of the COVID-19 disruptions on early childhood development in countries across East Asia and the Pacific in terms of the five dimensions of the Nurturing Care Framework. It proposes priorities for stakeholders and policy-makers towards achieving the fourth Sustainable Development Goal, which is inclusive and equitable in nature.

Marking the launch of JEiE’s special issue on early childhood development in emergencies, contributing authors, issue editors, and guest speakers will highlight efforts to address the needs of young children and families living in humanitarian situations, and what we have learned from these efforts.

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.

In this Editorial Note, lead editors Sweta Shah and Joan Lombardi introduce the key themes, trends, and novel contributions to evidence on ECD in emergencies offered in JEiE Volume 7, Number 1.

In this Research Article, authors Jonathan Seiden, Valeria Kunz, Sara Dang, Matrika Sharma, and Sagar Gyawali provide quasi-experimental evidence of Save the Children’s ECD centers improving preacademic skills in children living in emergency contexts.

Authors Julie L. Drolet, Caroline McDonald-Harker, Nasreen Lalani, Sarah McGreer, Matthew R. G. Brown, and Peter H. Silverstone argue that ECD service delivery and infrastructure, critically inadequate in the months after wildfires devastated Fort McMurray, Alberta, are a vital part of disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness.

In this Field Note, authors Katelin Swing Wilton, Aimée Vachon, Katie Maeve Murphy, Ayat Al Aqra, Abdullah Ensour, Iman Ibrahim, Anas Tahhan, Kayla Hoyer, and Christine Powell outline the International Rescue Committee’s experience adapting a home-visiting ECD intervention for refugees and internally displaced persons in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

In this Field Note, Fabiola A. Lara examines how the rollout of Save the Children’s Toxic Stress Mitigation Model in El Salvador addressed the needs and wellbeing of caregivers, as well as those of children, and engaged fathers and grandfathers in children’s early development in innovative ways.

In this Field Note, authors Erum Mariam, Jahanara Ahmad, and Sarwat Sarah Sarwar argue that community participation in the design of ECD centers has led to the creation of learning spaces that foster a sense of belonging and cultural pride for displaced children in Cox’s Bazar, thus supporting their psychosocial wellbeing.

In this Field Note, authors Kim Foulds, Naureen Khan, Sneha Subramanian, and Ashraful Haque illustrate how Sesame Workshop brought affected populations to the table to plan the design and scope of an ECD intervention and offer a framework for involving recipients in planning humanitarian programming.