ICDP = International Child Development Programme

ICDP is a Caregiver Programme. 

ICDP’s commitment is to work for the benefit of children, youth and families worldwide towards a more peaceful and violence free society.

We aim to implement recent knowledge from scientific research in child development for the benefit of vulnerable and neglected children so that they can achieve their full potential through relationships with caregivers.

The ethos of ICDP is to provide for human care by activating empathy and by building caregivers’ competence; the focus is on quality relationships that enhance psychosocial development.





International

ICDP was founded in Norway in 1992 by Professor Karsten Hundeide togeter with Nicoletta Armstrong and Henning Rye. In 1994 ICDP was adopted as a methodology to be promoted by WHO.

ICDP has been active in 71 countries since its beginnings in 1992 and in 2023 it was active in 50.

ICDP developments on a large scale took place in Angola, Mozambique, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Guatemala, Brazil, El Salvador, Colombia, Macedonia and Ukraine. It is a country project in Norway, where it is coordinated by The Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs, and also in El Salvador where it is spread nationwide by the Salvadoran Institute for Integral Development of Childhood and Adolescence (ISNA). In Colombia, thanks to the support from UNICEF and local government bodies, ICDP has reached 250 000 families.

Based on recent research in child development, the ICDP psychosocial intervention programme aims to enhance and enrich the relationship between caregivers and their children. The ICDP programme is designed to identify and reactivate local cultural practices, in order to stimulate development that is authentic, sustainable and long lasting. The task of ICDP training is to sensitise, build competence and confidence in members of a community or an existing child caring system, so as to withdraw after some time and transfer the project to the local resource persons

IMPLEMENTATION

Level of training

ICDP offers 3 levels of training

Caregiver

  • Caregivers apply good quality interaction with their children.

Fascilitator

  • Fascilitators run group meetings with caregivers

Trainer

  • Trainers train new groups of fascilitators