As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of caregivers in child development, world-leading toymaker the LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation unveiled a partnership with the support from UNICEF to bring learning-through-play to support early development in needy children in China.

The three-year partnership will invest about $2.5 million in resources to community-based family support programs to help caregivers understand the importance and lifelong benefits of incorporating play into their everyday lives and enhance caregivers' capacity to better support their young children.

According to Lego, research has found caregivers and young children in less-developed areas interact less, and that disparity exists between urban and rural areas in many aspects of early childhood development, such as the opportunity to develop language.

"This partnership is important because parents, caregivers and children all have much to gain from play-based learning and positive parenting," said Cynthia McCaffrey, UNICEF representative to China.

The project will focus on children and their caregivers in 200 less-developed rural communities and those with high migration areas across ten provinces and autonomous regions, including Gansu, Guizhou and Hebei.

It is expected that 20,000 children aged 0 to 6 years old and around 40,000 caregivers will benefit directly through access to better quality community-based family support services, improved parenting practices and behaviors and use of age-appropriate play materials.

With the support of the LEGO Group, UNICEF will work closely with its national counterpart to empower parents and caregivers to support children's play and practice playful parenting, and build a sustainable and scalable system of community-based services.

Diana Ringe Krogh, head of LEGO Collaboration and Social Ventures at the LEGO Foundation, said: "We aim to build a future in which learning through play empowers all children to become creative, engaged, life-long learners. Parents, who are their children's first playmates, are fundamental to that aim and have the opportunity to provide a head start in learning through play that can last beyond the early years."

Kathrine Kirk Muff, vice-president of Social Responsibility at the LEGO Group, said: "It is our mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow, and we believe that every child has the right to play. Parents and caregivers are critical people in a child's upbringing, their development and wellbeing. We envision this partnership as an important step forward in bringing joyful play experiences and early development opportunities to more children-in-need in China."

The LEGO Group announced last September its commitment to invest up to $400 million to accelerate sustainability and social responsibility initiatives. By 2022, the LEGO Group aims to reach 8 million children around the world annually with learning-through-play through a range of activities with partners, in collaboration with the LEGO Foundation.