Togo is stepping up efforts to make early childhood development a central pillar of national development, with the government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) strengthening collaboration on an integrated community-based model aimed at improving children’s health, wellbeing and prospects from birth.
The initiative, known as Dagbékéva, combines maternal and child healthcare, immunisation, nutrition, early stimulation, birth registration and community childcare in a coordinated package designed to reach families at the grassroots.
The renewed partnership received fresh impetus on Sunday when Togo’s Minister of Health, Jean-Marie Koffi Ewonoule Tessi, accompanied by UNICEF Representative in Togo, Dr Erina Dia, visited communities in the Vo district to assess implementation of the programme.
The field assessment highlighted an emerging approach in which healthcare, civil registration, social support, technology and community participation are treated as interconnected elements of child development rather than separate interventions.
At Akoumapé, the delegation inspected a community childcare facility established to provide a safe environment for young children while their mothers engage in farming and other income-generating activities.
The initiative addresses a persistent challenge facing rural families: balancing childcare responsibilities with household livelihoods.
For many women in rural communities, limited access to affordable childcare can constrain their ability to work, farm or participate in economic activities. By bringing childcare services closer to families, the Dagbékéva model seeks to improve children’s welfare while also supporting the economic participation of their parents.
Technology is another key component of the initiative.
At Vo Koutimé, the delegation examined the “Naissance Kéva” digital application, designed to facilitate birth registration while helping parents track essential child-health interventions, including vaccination appointments.
The integration of civil registration with healthcare services could significantly improve the identification and reach of children who might otherwise remain outside formal government systems.
Birth registration provides a child with legal identity and can serve as a gateway to education, healthcare, social protection and other public services. Linking registration with routine health services therefore creates an opportunity to reach families through systems they already use.
The Dagbékéva model is built on the recognition that healthy childhood development extends beyond vaccination and treatment of illness.
Nutrition, early stimulation, protection, legal identity, parental support and access to quality healthcare all play critical roles during the formative years of a child’s life.
The programme consequently seeks to deliver these services as a coordinated package around the needs of individual children and families.
The approach could hold particular relevance for African countries confronting similar challenges, including limited resources, difficult-to-reach communities, inadequate birth registration and gaps in access to early childhood services.
Rather than establishing separate structures for each intervention, Dagbékéva seeks to maximise existing community and health systems to deliver multiple services simultaneously.
During the visit, UNICEF also provided communities with equipment and child-focused kits and supported the inauguration of a district pharmaceutical depot intended to improve access to essential medicines.
The intervention underscores the importance of strengthening primary healthcare infrastructure alongside community-based services.
Minister Tessi called for stronger mobilisation of partners to consolidate the gains recorded in Akoumapé, particularly the community childcare initiative.
He also advocated the transfer of lessons from Dagbékéva to other communities, with the development of “trainers of trainers” identified as a key mechanism for expanding the programme.
The strategy would allow trained local actors to pass implementation knowledge and skills to additional teams, reducing dependence on a highly centralised delivery system and improving the prospects for sustainability.
The minister’s position suggests an ambition to move Dagbékéva beyond a localised intervention and use its experience to inform broader national early childhood development programmes.
The Togo-UNICEF partnership could have implications beyond the communities visited in the Vo district.
Across Africa, governments continue to grapple with incomplete birth registration, child malnutrition, gaps in vaccination coverage, inadequate early childhood services and limited support for parents, particularly women, who combine childcare with economic activities.
Dagbékéva offers a model in which several of these challenges are addressed simultaneously by designing services around the child and family rather than around individual government departments.
Its combination of digital technology, community childcare, healthcare, nutrition, early stimulation and civil registration provides a potentially replicable framework for strengthening early childhood development without necessarily creating entirely new institutional structures.
For Togo and UNICEF, the ultimate objective is to ensure that children receive the support they need during the earliest years of life — a period that can profoundly influence their future health, learning and productivity.
The long-term success of the model, however, will depend on sustained financing, community ownership, quality assurance and the government’s capacity to scale up interventions that demonstrate measurable results.
Developments in Vo nevertheless point to a broader shift in development thinking: from treating childhood interventions as isolated programmes to recognising early childhood development as a fundamental investment in national development.
As Togo works to expand Dagbékéva, its partnership with UNICEF could provide valuable lessons for other African countries seeking to combine community action, public health and digital innovation to give children a stronger start in life.
