HomeThe Good Start Challenge

The Good Start Challenge

A €2.6 million global challenge, in partnership with Challenge Works, to advance innovative solutions that improve the wellbeing of parents and caregivers in the early years

When a child is born, a parent is also born — let’s reimagine how we care for them

The Good Start Challenge is helping to build societies where the wellbeing of new parents is truly valued and better supported.

Becoming a parent is a time of deep transformation—physically, emotionally, and socially—and awe. For many caregivers, especially those living in underserved communities, the early years of parenthood are also a time of remarkable pressure and overwhelm. The Good Start Challenge is a global call to action to support parents.

With €2.6 million in funding to support innovators, the Good Start Challenge aims to accelerate bold, practical solutions that improve the wellbeing of parents and caregivers of babies, toddlers and young children. The Challenge is focused on supporting underserved communities in Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, The Philippines, Senegal and Uganda.

Initiated and driven by the Van Leer Foundation, the Good Start Challenge is delivered by Challenge Works, and supported by the FEMSA Foundation, Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, and the LEGO Foundation.

Parental Wellbeing

Why now

Recent science shows that pregnancy and the first years of parenthood are as neurologically significant as adolescence.

This powerful insight demands a shift in how we support those raising the next generation. We are calling on innovators from all sectors to step forward with ideas they are already implementing that can give parents the good start they deserve. Because when parents thrive, children flourish, and communities grow stronger.

Learn more on parental wellbeing

Who is the Challenge for?

Parents come into contact with a wide range of services and sectors everyday, all of which have potential to drive bold innovation to better support them.

That is why the Good Start Challenge welcomes a wide range of potential entrants, including those who are new to working with parents of young children. This might include:

Local and community-based organisations
Start-ups
Small and medium-sized enterprises

We are interested in supporting a diverse portfolio of innovators including across factors such as gender, race, and people with lived experience. We are especially interested in local and community-based innovators who have deep-rooted connections to the challenges they seek to address, ensuring solutions are contextually relevant, sustainable, and driven by lived experience.

Photo: Marlon Diego and Beatriz Bley

Finalists have been announced!

Twenty-two finalists have been selected and will receive capacity-building support to further develop their solution, alongside a grant of €50,000 each. In February 2026, the finalists will come together in Nairobi, Kenya, to attend a 3-day Summit where they will take part in in-person capacity building workshops, as well as networking opportunities.

Up to six winners will be selected in June 2026 to receive a prize of €200,000 to scale their solutions further and amplify impact for parents and caregivers globally.

Meet the finalists

Why Van Leer initiated the Challenge

The Good Start Challenge was created to turn insight into collective action, bridging the gap between what we know about parental wellbeing and what we do about it.

~ Rushda Majeed, Chief Programme Officer, Van Leer Foundation

Through our work we have seen how transformative proper recognition and support for parents can be, and how lacking it often is. The Challenge was designed to intentionally spotlight the importance of parental wellbeing in early childhood development, and more broadly, ensure parents and other caregivers receive the care they need in the early years. We believe that identifying new and creative ideas to better support parents, and developing stronger networks around them is imperative to ensuring a good start for all.

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