“Creating lasting change means making early childhood development a national priority.”

Farah Jadallah has steadily been building partnerships, knowledge and capacity on early childhood in Jordan as the Foundation’s representative. In this interview, Farah shares her experiences of elevating early childhood development as a national priority by uniting leaders across government ministries and civil society organisations. Her work has helped solidify early childhood as a central pillar in Jordan’s Economic Modernisation Vision.

We spoke with Farah to capture her insights on cross-sectoral collaboration and how leadership at both national and local levels helps young children and communities flourish.

My vision is for every child in Jordan, especially those under the age of five, to grow up in environments that are nurturing, healthy, and supportive from the very beginning. Creating lasting change means making early childhood development a national priority. While Jordan has made progress in early childhood education, children under five have often been overlooked and left primarily to the private sector. Expanding our focus to include all aspects of child development allows us to better address existing challenges and respond more effectively to the needs of young children and families. This also means recognising the essential role of parents and caregivers by ensuring they have the tools and resources to raise resilient, healthy children.

The Jordan Economic Modernisation Vision (EMV), which launched in 2022, aims to generate one million economic opportunities over the next decade. We successfully advocated for early childhood development to be included as a standalone pillar within the EMV, recognising that investing in children’s early years leads to long-term economic and social returns. As a next step, we are looking to invest in a broad set of early childhood services that will shape the next generation of healthier, skilled, and productive individuals who can contribute meaningfully to society.

On broader benefits, especially for communities, we have to talk about women. Jordan has one of the highest female unemployment rates, and a big reason for that is the lack of childcare. If we want more women embrace the economic opportunities created by the EMV, we need to create safe, affordable, and accessible childcare where women feel that their children will be well cared for. That’s a huge part of what holistic early childhood policy and programmes can support – not just child wellbeing, but economic and financial opportunities for families, especially mothers.

We’ve been fortunate to work with partners who’ve built strong, trusted relationships with key government ministries, something that’s been essential to making progress in early childhood. What’s been most exciting is seeing ministries step up that you wouldn’t typically expect to lead on this agenda.

Through our partner War Child, we’re working closely with the Ministry of Social Development to institutionalise parental wellbeing programmes. Despite how stretched they are, the Ministry has made space for this work, due to high levels of demand from parents who have benefited from the networks of support created through the programme.

What’s been most exciting is seeing ministries step up that you wouldn’t typically expect to lead on this agenda.

The Ministry of Health has also been a key partner. We now have a national postpartum depression programme with the Royal Health Awareness Society endorsed by the Minister himself demonstrating real ownership at the highest level. The Ministry of Religious Affairs has also been a surprising and inspiring ally. Thanks to the long-standing work of the Queen Rania Foundation, the educators within the Ministry have requested to the minister for behaviour change reading programmes to be officially institutionalised across Jordan’s Quranic centres.

I’m especially proud of the commitment from the Ministry of Local Administration, which oversees municipalities across Jordan. They’ve pledged to set up early childhood units nationally. In my own career, I honestly don’t remember a time when early childhood was ever discussed at the municipal level in Jordan. We’ve always worked with centralised ministries, so to see local governments stepping up feels new and gives me hope.

Continuing on the topic of local action, Irbid was our first Urban95 city in Jordan. Through our partnership with Majlisna/Civic UK, we helped the Greater Irbid Municipality create the family hubs model, which has already scaled to three parks, serving both parents and children. The success of this model led the municipality to expand it and establish more family hubs and the first Early Childhood Development Unit. We’re now working directly with them to provide training, enhance strategic planning, and ensure year-round early childhood development programming.

A recent achievement is the creation of an innovative park in Aqaba, the first its kind in Jordan.

A promising new partnership we are building is with the Zaha Cultural Center. They’ve been instrumental in scaling our Urban95 interventions in Jordan, especially in the south of the country. A recent achievement is the creation of an innovative park in Aqaba together with Superpool, the first its kind in Jordan. Located in a low-income neighbourhood, this area has a high concentration of children under five (14% of the population), but the community has struggled with access to services. Parents often can’t afford private programmes, and there are very few free, quality spaces for children to learn and develop. So, to build a park that not only serves as a play space but also offers educational programmes, music, storytelling, and a dedicated parental wellbeing centre, is a major win for us.

Evidence and data have been crucial in shaping early childhood development decisions in Jordan. For example, the Ministry of Social Development piloted the BeThere programme, after seeing the results of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) conducted in Lebanon. The pilot in Jordanian community centres quickly revealed a high demand, with hundreds of mothers on waiting lists. After the impact reports from the programme showed significant improvements in parental wellbeing, the Ministry took steps to institutionalise it. The demand data from parents, coupled with the positive impact outcomes, was key in driving the decision to scale and sustain the programme in Jordan.

It’s inspiring to see how, once parents in Jordan are given the tools, space, and support, they transform how they show up for their children. Many, like me, grew up believing that education was the most important thing in the world, but now they also value how critical social and emotional development and overall wellbeing is for their child’s future.

Parents are showing up at family hubs, pop-up play events (see images below), joining parenting sessions, and support groups that continue to grow beyond the programmes. Mothers and fathers are sharing struggles, offering advice, and finding strength in each other. Culturally, we’ve been raised to take care of others, our siblings, our children, even our parents, but rarely taught to care for ourselves. These programmes are gently challenging that, encouraging parents to breathe, take a step back, and recognise their own needs too. And once they do, the change is visible. Parents start to light up and feel more confident and joyful in their role.

Parents start to light up and feel more confident and joyful in their role.

My hope is that the conference will mark the moment where cross-sector collaboration on early childhood development transforms into action. The conference is led by the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA), the national early childhood development governance body and has the patronage of the Prime Minister demonstrating government commitment.

The policymakers, grassroots organisations, practitioners attending are sending a signal that supporting the early years is a national priority. We want people to work together with a joint understanding that supporting children and their caregivers is foundational to Jordan’s economic and social future.

We want people to work together with a joint understanding that supporting children and their caregivers is foundational to Jordan’s economic and social future.

We are already seeing this kind of collaboration come to life. In Aqaba, for example, with Zaha we’re integrating our work with the Royal Health Awareness Society, War Child, and Queen Rania Foundation to deliver integrated services: health, caregiver support, and learning all in one place. It’s exactly the kind of model we hope to expand, and this conference can help build the momentum to do just that.