The Challenge

The Challenge

The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge aims to incorporate a focus on early childhood development (0-5-year-old children) in the planning and management of Indian cities.

The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge is a 3-year initiative that aims to work with Indian cities and their partners to pilot and scale ways to improve public space, mobility, neighborhood planning, access to early childhood services and amenities, and data management across city agencies. It will also build a platform for peer-to-peer learning and sharing best practices between cities.

What cities can do

Make streets safe and walkable for young children and their caregivers
Reimagine public open spaces for play and interaction
Adapt public spaces with early childhood amenities
Improve access to early childhood services

The Process

YEAR ONE
The Challenge img
YEAR TWO & THREE
Deeper engagement between WRI India and selected cities img
 
10 Weeks

APPLY

Open Call for applications from all Indian cities

 
6 Months

PILOT

Cohort of up to 20 cities will receive technical support and capacity-building to experiment and pilot early childhood-oriebted solutions

 
2 Years

IMPLEMENT

Up to 10 winning cities will receive further technical support and capacity building to implement and scale early childhood-oriebted solutions over a two-year period

 

Objectives of the Challenge

Promote early childhood centric approach among Indian cities

Equip city managers and governments with the language and rationale of early childhood-centric development to apply it in their decision making.

Catalyse cities to mainstream and implement solutions in long-term

Support scaling up of solutions by implementing policy interventions, multiple pilot projects, measuring the impact, and capacity building.

Facilitate demonstration of early childhood centric solutions

Support selected city governments to adopt the principles in designing and implementing pilot projects for early childhood-centric infrastructure and services.

Develop peer – peer network of nurturing cities

Facilitate capacity building for officials within various city government departments and develop a network of champions for early childhood to engage with each other and share learnings on best practices.

Collect and analyse data related to young children and their caregivers

To inform decision-making, develop use cases and best practices, and disseminate the same through capacity building activities.