In Jordan, the majority of children under 6 are not enrolled in formal early childhood education (60% KG2, 10% KG1 and 3% nursery). Research also shows that these children are missing out on quality interactions and learning at home with 6% of parents reporting that they read with their children in the 3 days prior to the survey, 15% sang to them, and only 19% talked with them.
Considering 90% of the brain develops in the first 5 years, we had to do something that would not just raise awareness but change practices at home.
The Iqrali program has three components, 1) social behavioural change communications campaign (SBCC), 2) on ground interventions that involve book gifting and using trusted messengers like health workers, and 3) online platforms and app to support parents in their journey of reading with their children.
Based on nationally representative research with parents to understand their barriers and motivators to reading with their children, the program’s tone, messaging and interventions were designed to eliminate barriers and build on motivators to promote shared book reading.
Namely, reading is emphasised as a time for bonding and building the parent-child relationship, while also noting the benefit it has on language development for children.
Through the interventions and book gifting, various elements are used to eliminate barriers to reading like lack of books, lack of time by integrating the behaviour within existing routines, and using nudge messaging via chatbot to maintain the behaviour and encourage effective reading strategies that build early literacy skills in children.
We are moving from piloting and testing in multiple locations across Jordan to transitioning to scale. Over the coming 2-3 years, Iqrali will be scaling broad and deep.
Scaling board will mean the communications and platforms components will launch nationally in September 2026. Scaling deep will happen through the roll out of major interventions governorate by governorate, starting in Aqaba Jordan in 2026. We aim to refine targeting of the on ground interventions to reach the most in need as data comes in from the campaign’s effects on behaviours.
A major achievement for us is the partnership and buy-in of the Ministry of Health who are integral for the intervention with nudge messaging and booking gifting through vaccine centres. Not only are they onboard, but they are asking us to expand. They are also in the process of integrating the training within job descriptions of midwives etc.
We are now seeing years of research and careful design being tested in the real world and yielding positive results which we are proud of.
Iqrali isn’t a single product but a program and approach to transforming early childhood development using behavioral science and an ecosystem approach.
Many of the components and interventions can be replicated in other settings, but critical for success is doing research and designing/tailoring interventions based on your context. Specifically thinking about what your ECED context is and the specific barriers and motivators faced by parents you are working with. This needs to be followed by iterative testing and experimentation of each component.
QRF has developed a guide for evidence informed strategies for ECD interventions like Iqrali, based on our experience developing the program: https://qrf.org/en/resources/transforming-earliest-years-guide-evidence-informed-strategies-collaborative-partnerships
You can also contact the program team at QRF to discuss a whole program or component and how this can be used in your context. For other Arabic speaking countries, our platforms should be free to be used and we welcome discussions on partnering to scale further.
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