Launching Smart Beginnings: Adapting ECD to Local Realities

Written By Adriana Santiago

Last month, we officially launched a new round of the Smart Beginnings programme, reaching over 200 internally displaced families across settlements in Hargeisa (Somaliland) and Kismayo (Jubaland). Smart Beginnings is designed specifically to set the foundations for early literacy skills and promote interactive play among toddlers. Within internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements, these interventions take on a critical importance. Beyond driving cognitive development for children, the programme acts as a vital support structure for caregivers. It fosters early relational health, builds strong social connections among displaced women, and supports maternal mental health in a context where these foundational family and community networks are often severely disrupted by displacement. While the benefits of Early Childhood Development (ECD) are well-documented, translating these concepts into effective, sustainable action within highly resource-constrained displacement camps requires careful adaptation to ensure the programme is both accessible and deeply resonant. 

Testing What Works: A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) 

To ensure our approach creates meaningful, measurable change, this launch is structured as a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). By randomly assigning participating families into either a treatment group (which participates in guided mothers' groups) or a comparison group (no guided sessions), we can rigorously isolate the true impact of our intervention.

This research will help us understand not just how the programme impacts toddlers' early literacy and play, but how participating in facilitated mothers' groups affects the caregivers themselves. We are closely examining how these networks might improve maternal mental health, build vital social capital, and potentially create avenues for informal childcare and improved livelihood outcomes among displaced women.

Adapting to the Refugee and IDP Context

To make Smart Beginnings successful and deeply resonant within Somali IDP settlements, we have prioritized several key contextual adaptations:

  • Accessible Venues Within the Camps: Transportation and safety are significant barriers for displaced mothers. To guarantee equal access, our sessions are held in physically accessible, neutral community spaces located directly within the IDP settlements.

  • Somali-Language Children's Books: In a context where children's literature is practically non-existent, providing physical books is a critical first step. We distribute curated Somali-language children's books to help families establish their own home libraries.

  • Culturally Relevant Topics: Our curriculum goes beyond basic pre-literacy. It integrates highly relevant topics for the context, including early nutrition, clean habits for infection prevention, maternal mental health, and the importance of oral storytelling—a practice deeply rooted in Somali culture.

  • Bypassing Literacy Barriers: We recognize that illiteracy can be a factor of exclusion. Therefore, our sessions train mothers in non-literate "reading" techniques, such as using picture books as visual launching pads for oral storytelling.

  • Trained Local Facilitators: The group sessions are led by trained, Somali-speaking female facilitators. By empowering local women to lead these groups, we ensure the delivery is culturally fluent while actively building a pioneering workforce of early childhood practitioners within the community.


For children growing up in displacement camps, early learning opportunities are often virtually non-existent, leaving a stark developmental vacuum during the most critical window of brain growth. Through these tailored adaptations and extensive evaluation, Smart Beginnings ensures that refugee and displaced toddlers do not miss out on crucial developmental milestones.


Adriana Santiago