Early Childhood Development: Knowledge & Societal Impact 2014-2022

The CoE-HUMAN has made a significant contribution to knowledge, policy and societal impact in the field of early childhood development (ECD), locally, regionally, and globally. Much of this work has been led by Distinguished Professor Linda Richter, working with post-graduate students, fellows and colleagues in the CoE-HUMAN, other research institutions, government, civil society, and multi-national organizations. Key highlights of Prof Richter’s work, for which she received the NRF 2020/2021 prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, and of the CoE-HUMAN are shown below.

Building on authorship in the 2007 and 2011 Lancet Series on Early Childhood Development in Developing Countries, Prof Richter led the 2017 Lancet Series Advancing Early Childhood Development: From Science to Scale, and was first author of Paper 3 Investing in the foundation of sustainable development: pathways to the longestrunning birth cohort study on the African continent.

A second, larger, launch was held on Saturday August 20th in Soweto for the participants of the Bt30 study. This launch was an opportunity for the participants to reconnect with the amazing study, but equally as important – for the study to thank the participants for their long commitment through a celebration honouring their involvement. Participants of the Bt30 study each received a free copy of the book, funded by a grant from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.

Both events brought together some of the most important aspects of this remarkable project – the people and the science – and what it takes to engage in relevant research in South African society. The book is also sold online with all proceeds supporting postgraduate students working on longitudinal studies.