Most ECD research and policy stem from a handful of high-income, Western contexts.

These frameworks don’t fully reflect the realities of the Majority World, where caregiving is guided by diverse cultural values. As a result, countries like Zanzibar are often seen as recipients of external knowledge rather than active contributors to global developmental science.
 
This project aims to change that narrative — responding to an urgent need as a significant number of young children in Zanzibar remain at risk of developmental delays.

SUMOOD™ bridges academic science and community practice.
 

We initiated a participatory research alliance between the Learning Teaching and Developmental Lab (TLD) at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and a local research based NGO, the Zanzibar Research Centre for Socio-Economic and Policy Analysis (ZRCP). While NYUAD implements the research activities, SUMOOD ensures this partnership is rooted in equity by centering the local knowledge, skills, and leadership capacities of the ZRCP team. Our role is to facilitate the co-construction of knowledge that is both scientifically rigorous and culturally grounded.

This collaborative, multi-phase project is designed to comprehensively assess local strengths and explore existing parenting and caregiving systems within Zanzibar.

By involving local stakeholders in the co-design of the research, the findings will be deeply contextually relevant and meaningful to Zanzibar's unique environment. Ultimately, the goal is to use this robust, community-validated evidence to invest in local human capital, and guide the creation and execution of effective, locally-grounded interventions and policies that nurture healthy development and resilience in every child.