Background: The first five years are crucial for a child’s cognitive, motor and socio-emotional development that, in turn, can have a long-term effect on later stages of life. However, many children in low- and middle-income countries are disadvantaged in achieving development goals as they lack vital support from family and surroundings. As a tool to increase equity in this area, mobile phone applications can provide parents and caregivers with scientific knowledge and activities for children’s development between ages 0-5 years.
Objective: This study aimed to describe the iterative co-design process and development of a parenting and early childhood development app, “Thrive by Five”, in Namibia.
Methods: Twenty Namibian parents and caregivers and six in-country subject matter experts participated in 7 co-design workshops to co-create the Thrive by Five app and its content between March-May 2022. Detailed notes from the workshops and written feedback from experts were coded and established thematic techniques were followed for analysis.
Results: The co-design workshops generated rich feedback on the scientific information and activities (together, “Collective Actions”) for parents to incorporate in interactions with children. Participants requested additional information about hygiene, nutrition and physical wellbeing, health services contact information, developmental milestones, parents’ mental wellbeing and localised activities to cover the gap in existing knowledge around the involvement of fathers in childrearing, positive parenting strategies to manage children’s behaviour and bonding with children. The negative effects of longer screentime were noted and activities were suggested to nurture children’s interpersonal, cognitive and motor skill development. Further, the involvement of Government representatives in the co-design process ensured that the content aligned with relevant policies in Namibia.
Conclusion: The iterative co-design process informed the development of a culturally appropriate and contextually relevant app for parents in Namibia. Further evaluation is required for capturing user experience in the real world.