Publications & Reports

Browse editions of our journal, Early Childhood Matters, and our Early Childhood in Focus series, along with other selected publications and reports. All are free to download or read online.

Roots of change - How a Guatemalan grassroots women’s organisation creates holistic child-centred communities, one neighbourhood at a time

Roots of change - How a Guatemalan grassroots women’s organisation creates holistic child-centred communities, one neighbourhood at a time

From 1990 to 2008, the Bernard van Leer Foundation funded FUNDAESPRO (Fundación Esfuerzo y Prosperidad, or Strength and Prosperity Foundation), a grassroots women’s organisation in Guatemala City. Our involvement started… Read more

Comparative Global Study of Urban Spaces to Support Parents

How can designated spaces for parents and children be established within existing municipal infrastructure such as community centres? What needs should these spaces focus on meeting? What services and programmes… Read more

Building on Islamic values - A fundamental shift in Moroccan early childhood education

Building on Islamic values A fundamental shift in Moroccan early childhood education - Historical cases - Bernard van Leer Foundation

The Bernard van Leer Foundation’s involvement in Morocco ran from 1981 to 2008. The story revolves around one key individual – a thought leader and influencer who was the linchpin… Read more

Emerging Early Childhood Inequality: On the Relationship Between Poverty, Sensory Stimulation, Child Development, and Achievement

Emerging Early Childhood Inequality: On the Relationship Between Poverty, Sensory Stimulation, Child Development, and Achievement - Bernard van Leer Foundation

Funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, this literature review illuminates how economic inequality affects educational achievement – in general and specifically in Israel, where economic and academic inequalities are… Read more

Early Childhood Matters 2018

The 2018 edition of Early Childhood Matters features keynote contributions from the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, on the ‘De Cero a Siempre’ policy; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General… Read more

Mothers of Rotterdam: scaling a social services programme in the Netherlands

This case study looks at how Mothers of Rotterdam, a social service programme based in the Netherlands and founded by a charismatic venture philanthropist, approached the challenge of growing and… Read more

Mix & Match - Tools to design urban play

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)

Child-friendly urban design - Bernard van Leer Foundation

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

Space to Grow - Ten principles that support happy, healthy families in a playful, friendly city

Space to Grow - Gehl Institute and Gehl

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