SUNRISE cluster RCT: Scaling Up Nurturing care, a Radio Intervention to Stimulate Early child development in Burkina Faso

The Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) launched by WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank during the 2018 World Health Assembly argued that “Investing in early child development (ECD) is one of the best investments a country can make to boost economic growth, promote peaceful and sustainable societies, and eliminate extreme poverty and inequality.” 250 million children under five in low and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential with adverse consequences for their learning and adult prosperity. The NCF is a roadmap for action, focussing on pregnancy and the first 3 years of life as the foundation for wellbeing throughout the life-course. It includes interventions promoting responsive caregiving and early learning, known to improve ECD outcomes when delivered in face-to-face or group sessions with parents and children. However, doing this at the scale needed presents enormous challenges, as many health systems are over-stretched and under-resourced. Mass media may provide a more effective way forward. We plan to explore this by developing a nurturing care radio campaign built on principles of Saturation and Interactivity informed by clinical psychology, behavioural science and epidemiologic evidence, and to evaluate the impact on ECD outcomes using a cluster randomised trial design.