Publications & Reports
Browse editions of our journal, Early Childhood Matters, and our Early Childhood in Focus series of briefing notes, along with other selected publications and reports. All are free to download or read online.
An Urban95 Starter Kit - ideas for action
This publication is a collection of promising ideas encountered so far in the Bernard van Leer Foundation's Urban95 initiative. Aimed primarily at city and local government leaders and managers, politicians,… Read more
Mix & Match - Tools to design urban play
This toolkit provides possible design interventions to create more inclusive play environments from the street to the neighbourhood. It is aimed at stakeholders including policy-makers, designers, planners, architects, NGOs and… Read more
Child-friendly urban design - Observations on public space from Eindhoven (NL) and Jerusalem (IL)
This report presents findings on urban design solutions for increasing child-friendliness at the neighbourhood level based on a project funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. It reviews the literature… Read more
Playing it safe? - A global white paper on risk, liability and children’s play in public space
Available data suggests that playgrounds are comparatively safe places – yet, in many countries, concerns about potential liability for injury have led to bureaucratic risk reduction initiatives that might not… Read more
Space to Grow - Ten principles that support happy, healthy families in a playful, friendly city
In partnership with the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 initiative, this paper by Gehl Institute and Gehl briefly distils 10 initial findings from research to explore how public spaces in… Read more
Services for children and family in Istanbul district municipalities
This report summarises how the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) produced an interactive map of services for children and families across 39 district municipalities in Istanbul, correlated with… Read more
Annual Report 2017
The Bernard van Leer Foundation's Annual Report 2017 contains a foreword from the Chair of the Board of Trustees, message from the Executive Director, selected updates from around the world… Read more
The buried seed - How Nicaragua came to have one of the most progressive early childhood learning policies on the planet
The Bernard van Leer Foundation worked in Nicaragua during a period (1981 to 2008) of major political upheavals, which necessitated change in how we approached our aim of building local… Read more
How dashboards can help cities improve early childhood development
Data dashboards can help cities to set priorities, monitor progress, encourage collaboration, inform decisions, increase accountability, and strengthen the voices of children. Based on interviews with experts and practitioners, this… Read more
Building Better Cities with Young Children and Families
For the most part, the voices of young children, their parents and caregivers, and pregnant women have been underrepresented in traditional city building processes and overall civic engagement strategies. Using… Read more