We jointly create new knowledge
We believe that people with relevant ideas, skills and commitment need to engage with the underlying causes of issues that children and young people face. ICDI stimulates knowledge transfer and exchange among child and youth care professionals and other people who play a role in the daily lives of children and young people.
Early Childhood Education and Development
ICDI’s Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) thematic area promotes the healthy, holistic development of young children through safe, nurturing, and inclusive environments in both formal and non-formal settings. Grounded in international research and children’s rights, ICDI strengthens training, research, practice, and policy that support young children, especially those in vulnerable situations. Thematic priorities include:
- Supporting families and communities to create safe and nurturing environments inspired by responsive parenting, playful learning, and intergenerational relationships.
- Enhancing young children’s psychosocial development and emotional well-being through programmes that promote play, culture, creativity, interaction with nature and the outdoors, and inclusive learning opportunities. ICDI also develops innovative tools and trauma-informed approaches to support practitioners that work with children and families experiencing adversity, displacement, violence, discrimination, or social exclusion, with a focus on safety, trust, belonging, and supportive relationships.
- Advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in formal and non-formal ECEC by addressing barriers linked to gender, language, socio-economic background, disability, ethnicity, and migration, while fostering belonging within communities. ICDI embraces a progressive universalism approach, ensuring universal access while providing additional support to children and families facing the greatest vulnerabilities.
- Promoting play and playful learning outdoors and indoors as key drivers of young children’s cognitive, emotional, social, and creative development, encouraging curiosity, participation, exploration, problem-solving, and self-confidence, while integrating arts and STEM in developmentally appropriate ways.
- Strengthening the quality and sustainability of ECEC systems through curriculum development, teacher and practitioner training, mentoring, institutional capacity-building, and support for the professionalisation of the workforce. ICDI works with governments, training institutions, practitioners, and communities to scale inclusive, child-centred, trauma-informed, and evidence-informed practices and policies.
Child Protection & Well-being
To establish safe and enriching environments for girls and boys (from 8 to 18 years old), it is essential to create adequate circumstances by increasing both knowledge and skills of all involved. ICDI aims to facilitate the smooth transition from middle childhood (8-12 years old) to adolescence (12-18 years old), and from adolescence to adulthood, so that children can reach their full potential and become happy, well-balanced grown-ups. Special attention is paid to children and young people at risk, and to those living in or coming from situations of violence and/or exclusion. We specialise in two focal areas:
- Online safety, as more and more children and youth are accessing the Internet, with a special focus on children and youth who lost (or are at risk of losing) parental care and on war-affected children and youth. The capacity of professionals, parents, and youth is built through the promotion of safe, responsible online behaviour, digital resilience, healthy online relationships, and gender equality online. Within safe online spaces, young people can nurture their life skills and enjoy the benefits of unsupervised play and civic participation.
- (Non)formal education and life skills, through innovative and age-appropriate approaches that promote discussions on identity, self-determination, psychosocial well-being and child-centred focus within themes of intercountry adoption, child marriage, SRHR, and impact of climate change. We educate children and young people on their rights and equip them with essential life skills, strengthening their voices, shaping their audiences, and nourishing their networks.
Special and Innovative Initiatives
Having a comprehensive approach towards development also means that we are constantly evolving in our understanding of children’s and youth’s wellbeing. We are driven by new knowledge and our curiosity to explore newly emerging needs that will improve children’s lives. We are also eager to test our approaches in different contexts and with new groups. Within this thematic area, we challenge ourselves to learn, discover, build new partnerships, and co-create, focusing on the most vulnerable, children and youth. We develop, test and pilot new approaches within experimental initiatives. The most successful ones are tuned into ready-for-upscaling methodologies and programmes.
