First Steps' Big Step 2: Early Childhood Development and positive parenting in Jordan SUMMARY
First Steps’ Big Step (FSBS) Phase 2 is a two-years extension for the project funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Plan International Netherlands and designed to empower parents through community-based approaches, by teaching them how to create a more enabling home environment to better respond to children’s needs without gender discrimination or violence. Parenting programmes have been implemented to bolster gender-transformative thinking and psychosocial support. FSBS-2 will establish an evidence-based strategy to assure adequate interventions, Evidence that has been derived from FSBS-1 project, will be utilized to reinforce and shape the future activities as well. For example, the FSBS-2 project will utilize the male engagement findings to provide suggestions for exploring new techniques to execute the various interventions around male engagement, as well as to use the findings at policy level to establish policy that supports men in engaging with their children. In Jordan 82% of the children are engaged in childhood development activities, but only 22% of children are attending Early Childhood and Development
(ECD) services. In 2016, the Government of Jordan launched its ten-year Human Resource Development Strategy, which includes ECCD as a key priority.
However, addressing young children’s overall development remains critical, which was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the ECD age-group
was neglected in the MoE’s COVID-19 response plan.
Within FSBS-1 a lack of coordination and collaboration between ECD stakeholders within and across the health sector has been identified as a key issue.
The FSBS-1 steering committee recommended establishing a wider consortium within MoH that is connecting all ECD stakeholders, programmes, services,
policies and budgets, enhancing the inclusive quality of ECD along a standardized ECD programme, and streamlining the coordination between its ECD
partners to advocate for holistic ECD services. Hence for FSBS-2, a consortium, composed of Plan International, NCFA, RHAS, Humanity and Inclusion,
Health Care Accreditation Council has been established. This consortium under the umbrella of the MoH will collaborate closely with the National ECD
Team jointly aiming to prioritize ECD across sectors at the national level. The main priority for the consortium members (MoH, PI, NCFA, HI, HCAC, RHAS)
under the joint pathway is to ensure that all the services that each party provided are well coordinated according to the agreed work plan and to take
upon themselves the advocacy for the early childhood issues inside the Ministry of Health and under their umbrella and lead. While under pathway 2
MoH will be part of the national ECD team which include representatives from all sectors and organisations led by NCFA at national level to ensure proper
coordination in different sectors between the stakeholders and organisations aligning with Jordan's Economic Modernization Vision 2022-2025. The primary objective is to strengthen and embed ECD even further within and across the health sector in Jordan so that girls and boys receive better care, support and
services. By changing discriminating gender norms among female and male parents/caregivers and enabling them to understand their children's needs better, FSBS(2) aims to enhance nurturing practices. Furthermore, in the health sector ECD services will be enhanced and provided in a consistent, inclusive manner along endorsed ECD standards by MoH. Thirdly, an enabling environment will be created with well-resourced, evidence-based ECD parenting interventions integrated and coordinated across sectors according to ECD standards ensuring system strengthening and institulization for holistic ECD services. To achieve its goal FSBS-2 continues to work along the three interlinked long-term outcomes:
1. Parents and caregivers acquire the skills and knowledge to help children reach ECD milestones (participation in parenting sessions, understanding of ECD
concepts, behaviour change).
2. Establishment of accreditation to standardize ECD programmes within Ministry of Health.
3. Enhanced coordination between ECD stakeholders within MoH for the provision of holistic ECD services (MoH Steering Committee produces agenda, workplan
and follows through to meet objectives).
4. Launching of digital portal gathering all ECD-related data, information, available services that is accessible by relevant stakeholders.

Enabling parents to understand children's needs better, will enhance their care and nurturing. To ensure ECD services are provided in a consistent, inclusive, qualitative manner, national standards will be developed, tested and endorsed by MoH. Inclusive ECD services such as early detection and referral are being strengthened in the health center. The enabling environment will be strengthened through an ECD portal and strong coordination, lobby led by the ECD team in accord. with national/inter. standards to ensure system strengthening Caregivers of young children from vulnerable backgrounds e.g. refugees, asylum seekers, families living in poverty or affected by other discrimination prohibiting  integration into the community. ECD services for children under 6 years old will be provided. Finally adult professionals at the Ministry of Health, Education and MOH centres. - PLAN INTERNATIONAL NETHERLANDS role: donor accountability, supervising programme implementation, providing technical supporting regarding
gender equality, ECD, Monitoring and Evaluation, donor reporting, financial control & administration, compliance.
- PLAN INTERNATIONAL JORDAN (PIJ) role: coordination between partners/stakeholders, partners’ capacity strengthening, advocating for ECD as a national
priority with other stakeholders, bringing in regional/ global ECD knowledge and experience, Project management, PMEL, quality assurance throughout
the project implementation; Child Safeguarding and Gender Equality.
- ROYAL HEALTH AWARENESS SOCIETY (RHAS) role: conducting parenting programs in MoH centres by delivering inclusive parenting content to health
workers and parents, rolling out inclusive parenting training delivery, strengthening referral pathways, coordinating with other service providers/partners
on parenting and working with MoH on institutionalized mechanisms to promote ECD.
- THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR FAMILY AFFAIRS (NCFA) role: supervising the ECD Team to convene, gather evidence and prioritize ECD issues, advocating
through national dialogues on ECD issues, working with ECD Team/other stakeholders on nationally recognized ECD standards and indicators, creating a
portal including database of ECD resources, issuing the national ECD status report, lobbying line ministries/stakeholders on adopting ECD standards.
- THE HEALTH CARE ACCREDITATION COUNCIL (HCAC) role: designing ECD standards, establish a National Recognition System, execute mock surveys at
two MoH centers, awarding accreditation to 4 health centres; capacity building of health workers; providing consultation services to support change;
supporting government in realizing their potential to steer healthcare improvement; enhancing performance related to governance, standards,
accreditation, and capacity building; providing policy reform advice and enhancing engagement and awareness,.
- Humanity & Inclusion in Jordan (HI) role: providing equipment to enhance Early Detection (ED) and inclusive services to health centres (8), MoH staff’s
capacity strengthening on early detection, developmental milestones and national referral pathways, enhancing ED services at home through teaching
caregivers child developmental milestones, referring children identified by the Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) volunteers to health centres to
early detection services, providing early home-based interventions for children/caregivers, conducting monitoring visits. Raising community awareness
to reinforce early detection and early interventions understanding, participating actively ECD standards development, co-design and participate in
advocacy strategy, developing work plan with MoH to implement early detection activities as part of ECD services and scale-up.
Key Stakeholders
- Ministry of Health (MoH) role: taking ownership of the project and build their staff’s capacity on ECD through focal points, facilitating coordination with
stakeholders and staff, supervising parenting sessions, quality control of facilitators’ performance, community awareness. Furthermore, MoH will work
with FSBS-2 partners on institutionalising ECD within MoH policies, budgets, programmes and developing and endorsing ECD standards.
Ministry of Social Development (MoSD): PIJ works under the umbrella of the MoSD. Role: supporting project implementation, mainly the early detection
part and activating the referral system.
Other stakeholders: Arab Network for Early Childhood, UNICEF Jordan, Arab Resource Collective, International Rescue Committee, Higher Council for the
Rights of Persons with a Disability, supporting FSBS-2 on lobby and advocacy, enhancing inclusive ECD services, referral and system strengthening, standardization, feeding into the ECD portal. Plan focuses on building human and social capital as it is integral to strategic community investment; it leverages and multiplies the impact of the intervention by strengthening local partner organizations, increasing the likelihood of project success and sustainability. Plan has focused part of its intervention in government-run health centres instead of stand alone sites to increase the likelihood that the MOH can integrate this approach into their core functionality in the long term. Working hand in hand with MOH staff and through local partners already well integrated into the national systems, Plan International will provide capacity building and training opportunities for health and education staff ECD, psychosocial support, refugee and migrant rights, child protection identification and referral. This seeks to strengthen the uptake of ECD for vulnerable populations from the grassroots tot he ministerial level and thereby creating space and priorotisation at national level.