Four groups.
Four areas of focus.
One shared purpose.
PANKH works through four Working Groups, each bringing together members with different experiences, strengths and questions around early childhood development.
These are spaces where the collective moves from shared intent to shared action-exploring difficult questions, learning from practice, and creating ideas that can travel beyond any one organisation.
Seeing the whole child, and everything that shapes their world.
Every child experiences childhood differently. Gender, caste, disability, religion, geography, family circumstances and other aspects of identity and environment can come together to shape how a child experiences care, learning, social and emotional wellbeing, and opportunity. This Working Group looks closely at these intersections and asks: what does it take to make ECD more responsive to the different realities children and caregivers live?
The group brings together evidence, lived experiences and practice to deepen understanding of intersectionality in ECD, with a particular focus on gender and marginalisation. It works towards translating these learnings into practical frameworks, tools and approaches that organisations and practitioners can use in their own work.
What we are working towards
Deepening understanding of how intersecting identities and inequalities shape children’s development and experiences.
- Learning from research, practice and lived experiences, including through field immersions and member-led action research.
- Developing frameworks and practical guidance to bring intersectionality into pedagogy, programmes, policies and practice.
- Building the capacity of practitioners and organisations to reflect on and integrate intersectionality into their work.
- Documenting and sharing what we learn so that it can contribute to the wider ECD ecosystem.
Who is part of this journey?
What makes a space truly welcoming for a child?
Children grow and learn everywhere: in homes, within neighbourhoods, at Anganwadi Centres, Creches and DayCare centres, schools, parks, markets and wider communities. But what makes a space feel safe, inclusive and nurturing for a child?
This Working Group is exploring that question across different contexts. It brings together research, experiences and perspectives to understand what makes a space child-friendly, while keeping safety, inclusion, participation and social emotional wellbeing at its heart.
The group is working towards creating approaches that can help transform everyday public and community spaces into environments where children and their caregivers can thrive.
What we are working towards
- Building a shared understanding and definition of Child Friendly Spaces.
- Learning from existing child-friendly spaces and practices across diverse contexts.
- Co-designing spaces with children, communities and other key stakeholders.
- Developing principles, guidelines and tools that can be adapted across different settings.
- Bringing intersectionality, gender, social-emotional learning and caregiver wellbeing into the design of child-friendly spaces.
- Building the capacity of practitioners and communities to create and sustain these spaces.
Changing the story around childhood, together.
ECD is not only the work of organisations working in the sector. It belongs to families, caregivers, communities, care workers, practitioners, policy makers and all of us.
This Working Group is working to bring that idea to life through stories and narratives that make early childhood visible, relatable and impossible to ignore. Drawing on the experiences and learnings emerging across PANKH, the group works to amplify what we are learning and invite more people into the conversation.
At its heart is a simple belief: every child deserves a strong start, and nurturing the next generation is a shared responsibility.
What we are working towards
Bringing ECD into wider public conversations through compelling and accessible narratives.
- Sharing stories, experiences and learnings emerging from the collective’s work.
- Engaging families, caregivers, frontline care workers and communities around the importance of early childhood.
- Creating narratives that can inform and influence policymakers and other ecosystem actors.
- Building on the work of the other Working Groups to translate evidence and learning into stories that can travel.
- Exploring different forms of communication,from public engagements and events to digital storytelling, and other creative formats.
Because a collective is built in the spaces between us.
PANKH is not only about what organisations do together. It is also about how they learn, connect and grow together.
This Working Group creates the spaces that help those connections deepen: spaces for conversations, reflection, peer learning, exchange and collaboration. From bringing members together to learn from one another to creating opportunities for new collaborations to emerge, the group nurtures the relationships that give the collective its strength.
Because sometimes the most important thing a collective can create is simply a space where people can think together.
What we are working towards
Creating regular spaces for peer learning, dialogue, reflection and exchange.
Strengthening relationships, trust and a sense of belonging across the collective.
Creating opportunities for members to learn from one another’s experiences and practices.
Facilitating co-learning, cross-organisational visits and new collaborations.
Strengthening the collective by welcoming and engaging new members.
Supporting pathways for continued participation, shared accountability and collaboration.
Creating and organising shared knowledge and resources that can be useful across the ECD field.
Who is part of this journey?
