Delivering early childhood development in fragile displacement settings requires overcoming severe resource constraints. In Somalia Smart Beginnings pioneers a low-cost, low-intensity model. By transforming everyday household items into cognitive tools, utilizing bi-monthly sessions to respect caregivers' time poverty, distributing Somali-language books with non-literate reading techniques, and leveraging community social capital, the program fosters foundational learning and resilience without relying on traditional infrastructure.

The Smart Beginnings programme has officially launched across IDP settlements in Hargeisa and Kismayo, delivering culturally adapted early learning and literacy interventions to over 200 displaced families. The project tailors ECD strategies—including local venue access, Somali-language literature, non-literate storytelling techniques, and community facilitators—to strengthen early relational health, cognitive development, and maternal socio-emotional well-being in complex displacement settings.