Institutional Partnerships for Human Development (IPHD)
Supported by: Canadian Government (Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development)
Location: East Africa, South & Central Asia
Duration: 2013-2016
IPHD was an initiative funded by the Canadian Government. The Institute was one of several AKU entities that received funding under the initiative. The CDN$1M awarded to the Institute funded six projects, all of them aimed at strengthening the university’s capacity in the area of early human development (EHD). Each project was led by an AKU Principal Investigator who worked closely with at least one scholar from a partner Canadian institution. Each component project is described briefly below.
Project 1 consisted of four main activities: setting research priorities deemed appropriate for Majority World contexts; developing frameworks and strategies for graduate education; identifying industry models deemed to be supportive of early human development, and developing a Strategic Plan for the Institute. Project 2 had three main activities: evaluation of the AKDN Science of ECD (SECD) Phase 1 initiatives; the joint design and delivery of a blended learning course by AKU and the University of Toronto using the SECD online resource; and development and piloting of short SECD modules in AKDN countries.
Project 3 was designed to inform ECD policies and programmes in Tanzania. The four main activities were: a mapping of key issues and dimensions of ECD; a country landscaping study of existing ECD interventions, training, capacities and lessons learned; communication and dissemination activities on the basis of knowledge products developed by the project; and, finally, development of a database to inform the creation of online resources.
Project 4 was designed to study privately owned baby care enterprises typically provide care for 4 to 20 children in home premises. The project was based on the proposition that in marginalized communities with little public provision for ECD services, finding a way to strengthen these centres was critical to enhancing the quality of care and, hence, the quality of developmental outcomes for children. Project goals, therefore, included: supporting and empowering owners to work toward quality enhancement; providing training on how to work with parents/families toward to attainment of common goals, and how to enrich the quality of the care environment. The project assessed child outcomes on the Kilifi Development Instrument and measured changes in the quality of care environment on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scales (ITERS).
Project 5 was a study conducted in Pakistan on an innovative home-school bi-lingual (English-Urdu) literacy intervention model. It combined blended-learning teacher training with family literacy activities to promote literacy support at home and school. Twelve teachers and 30 families participated in this intervention. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected to assess the effects of the intervention on the children’s early literacy development as well as the beliefs and practices of families and teachers. In addition to the empirical work, the project anticipated practice and policy implications and planned for the development of materials and assessment tools as well as for the provision of workshops for teachers and families.
Project 6 was designed to validate the usefulness of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in the Pakistan context. Developed and used extensively in Canada, the EDI is a population-based measure for assessing young children’s developmental health status and ‘readiness to learn’ and it helps identify children who are likely to be at risk for school-related learning difficulties. The EDI is interpreted at the group level and can identify population-based vulnerability. This study aimed to assess the school readiness and developmental health status of pre-primary and class I students in a large sample of government-run schools in Karachi, Pakistan, and was intended to serve as a starting point for providing population based assessments of ECD.
