the Sesame Workshop, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Lego Foundation. The sponsors of work by the authors on this manuscript had no role in (1) study design; (2) the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; (3) the writing of the report; or (4) the decision to submit the paper for publication. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

A comprehensive evidence-based framework is needed to guide policies and programmes that enable children and adolescents to accrue the human capital required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper proposes a comprehensive, multisectoral, multilevel life-course conceptualisation of human capital development by building on the Nurturing Care Framework (NCF), originally developed for the foundational period of growth and development through the age 3 years. Nurturing care (NC) comprises stable environments that promote children’s health and nutrition, protect from threats, and provide opportunities for learning and responsive, emotionally supportive and developmentally enriching relationships. NC is fostered by families, communities, services, national policies and beyond. The principles apply across the life course, endorse equity and human rights, and promote long-term human capital. This paper presents an evidence-based argument for the extension of the NCF from preconception through adolescence (0–20 years), organised into six developmental periods: preconception/prenatal, newborn/birth, infancy/toddlerhood, preschool, middle childhood and adolescence. The proposed framework advances human capital within each developmental period by promoting resilience and adaptive developmental trajectories while mitigating negative consequences of adversities.Attaining the SDGs depends on strengthening human capital formation, extending throughout childhood and adolescence and supported by NC. Embedded in enabling laws, policies and services, the dynamic NCF components can mitigate adversities, enhance resilience and promote the well-being of marginalised groups. The life-course extension of the NCF is strategically positioned to enhance human capital, to attain the SDGs and to ensure that children or adolescents are not left behind in reaching their developmental potential.

With decades of evidence to support early childhood development (ECD) programs and policies, investment in ECD has expanded worldwide. Currently, over 70 nations have national ECD legislation, the majority in the last 20 years. However, with these increased investments comes evidence that the capacity of policy systems to support ECD-across health, education, social protection, and other sectors-is weak, with unfulfilled developmental potential a serious consequence within and across countries. This report aims to develop a research agenda on the systems-level factors-at national, subnational, and local or municipal levels-that may enable or constrain program site-level implementation. Two types of scale-"small to bigger" and "big to better"-are described, as well as the specific challenges of these processes in the field of ECD. Systems factors are reviewed at the three levels, with implications of each for measurement. Finally, methodological challenges and directions are discussed with the aim of informing a research agenda to support national policy progress in early childhood development. how human ecosystems can be changed to improve development, health, and well-being from conception to young adulthood in low-and middle-income countries. Particular interests pertain to how an individual's neurobiology interacts with contexts; the mechanisms through which interventions effect change; how stress physiology mediates/moderates intervention effectiveness; how changes in neurobiological markers inform questions of dose-response; and advancing tools to meaningfully and validly measure contexts, processes, and outcomes. In her capacity at Global TIES, Alice is working on multiple research projects in several low-, middle-, and conflict-affected countries, and across a variety of topics including early language development in pre-school children; home visiting, parenting, and early development; and implementation research to support scale and quality in early childhood development services.

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Young children living in conditions of war, disaster, and displacement are at high risk for developmental difficulties that can follow them throughout their lives. While there is robust evidence supporting the need for early childhood development (ECD) in humanitarian settings, implementation of ECD programming remains sparse, largely due to the lack of evidence of how and why these programs can improve outcomes in humanitarian settings. In order to build the evidence base for ECD in humanitarian settings, we review the current state of implementation research for ECD programming (targeting children 0-8) in humanitarian settings, through a literature review and a series of key informant interviews. Drawing from existing frameworks of implementation research and the findings from our analysis, we present a framework for ECD implementation research in humanitarian settings and propose an agenda for future research.