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| Early
Childhood Education and Development |
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The
Consultative Group on ECCD
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| Kathy
BartlKathy BartlettKaKKketKt |
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Kathly
Bartlett
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| Dakar (2000)
-- Goal # 1 "Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood
care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
children." |
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Document
6
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| Background |
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| This presentation
is on behalf of the joint Consultative Group on ECCD, a diverse
consortium of agencies, donors, NGOs and foundations that links
with regional-based ECD networks comprising individuals and
organisations involved in programming, research, policy-advocacy,
monitoring and evaluation in the field of ECD. The Consultative
Group (CG) has been operating for over 15 years and we continue
to evolve. Those listed on the agenda, namely the Aga Khan Foundation,
Bernard van Leer Foundation, Save the Children Alliance, UNICEF
and UNESCO have been long-standing partners in the Consultative
Group. However, there are many others not mentioned including
USAID, Christian Children's Fund, Academy for Education Development,
World Bank, Plan International, Pueblito, Latin American Development
Bank, High/Scope Foundation. Moreover there are the regional
networks that have been established are or in the process of
being established in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe,
Central Asia, South Asia, South/East Asia, and Africa (which
is moving towards sub-regional groups). |
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The
CG operates through a small International Secretariat, which
draws on the consortium, the regional representatives and
others' work, knowledge and expertise for its dissemination,
awareness-raising and advocacy work. The Secretariat - in
partnership with the other members of the consortium and
regional networks - works actively to identify gaps, critical
issues and emerging areas of need and interest related to
ECD, and to seek out new partners. The CG Consortium, Regional
Members and Secretariat engage in:
knowledge networking' through sharing experiences, synthesising
what is known and transmitting the knowledge through each
organisation's and region's networks via publications, personal
exchanges and action (i.e. www.ecdgroup.com; the Coordinator's
Notebook published twice yearly which focuses on priority
issues in the field)
advocacy
in diverse fora (i.e., EFA follow-up) and within agencies
and networks
joint action research and initiatives that pool resources
for greater impact and coverage (i.e., indicators work on
ECCD described below).
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| Participation
in the EFA Process |
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| The CG
partners within the regions and across agencies have been heavily
involved in the EFA process since Jomtien. At that first World
Conference on Education for All, the CG consortium lobbied --
along with others -- to ensure that the fundamental concept
that "Learning Begins at Birth" was taken on board and integrated
into the overall Jomtien agreement. In Amman, Jordan, the Consultative
Group reinforced this message with that of "Eight is Too Late".
In preparation for Dakar, some of our partners (agency and regional
participants) attended and provided inputs into some of regional
meetings that led up to the conference in April, and Robert
G. Myers (a member of the Secretariat) undertook on behalf of
the CG a review of the decade in relation to ECD for the Dakar
conference. In addition, the Consultative Group organised a
Strategy Session on Early Childhood Development in Dakar (report
attached) highlighting key issues and challenges for the future.
Finally, members from the Consultative Group on ECCD participated
on the EFA Steering Committee over the last number of years. |
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| At our
annual meeting (May 2000), we agreed collectively that regional
participants and member organisations would continue to look
for appropriate opportunities for ongoing participation and
active engagement in the proposed follow-up to Dakar. Through
this we aim to ensure ongoing awareness raising of ECD and its
ability to contribute towards the overall EFA process (e.g.
it enhances children's early development, it can increase the
efficiency of basic education, it complements and supports other
goals such as increasing girls' education and women's literacy).
We will also continue on with our other joint work, dissemination
activities and policy advocacy. |
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| Achievements
over the last decade and remaining challenges |
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There
were major advances in reducing infant and child mortality
-- though malnutrition is still high in many places. There
has been some inclusion of ECD in national plans but there
is still a lack of good and comprehensive laws and policies,
especially for children under 3.
While
there was a tendency for enrolments to increase the variations
across and within countries are large and ECD programmes still
are highly concentrated on pre-school education and tend to
reach children who live in urban areas and are from better
off families.
The knowledge
base for ECD has grown and as has the overall awareness of
ECD of political leaders, funders, planners and the population
at large as well.
The availability
of financing for ECD is a mixed picture. There were some increases
from international agencies (i.e., World Bank) but differences
remain across national governments and in some cases, such
as Eastern European and CIS countries, funding dropped dramatically
over the decade.
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| Future
areas of priority and challenges |
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| Improving
and Developing Appropriate indicators for ECD within specific
countries. One of the findings from the end of decade review
was that there is a pressing need to establish better systems
to monitor and evaluate both children and programmes across
different settings. The Consultative Group has been interested
and concerned about the use and development of indicators related
to ECD for some time. Over the last year, five country case
studies were undertaken in Namibia, Nepal, Jamaica, Philippines,
Colombia in order to improve and build upon the two ECD-related
indicators used in for the end of decade review. The case studies
and the lead review article will be synthesised and published
- along with other related work on ECD indicators - by the CG
in its next Coordinator's Notebook. While Robert Myer's overall
review article provided somewhat of a framework for each country,
the process of developing and piloting indicators across the
contexts differed. |
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| We believe
there may be lessons for the broader EFA process from this initial
work. For example, the work on reviewing, developing and (in
some cases) field-testing indicators helped to provide a platform
for useful discussions/debates around ECD (including across
fields (health, education, social welfare) and stakeholders
(government, civil society). The case study work also highlighted
the need to build capacities within countries in order to carryout
the development of appropriate indicators at country/sub-country
levels and they highlighted critical issues (i.e., HIV/AIDs
in Namibia) which required attention and work. The CG is hoping
to undertake additional case studies across a wider range of
countries/regions and also possibly do further work in some/all
of the 5 original case study countries. This would enable the
national-level cross-sector and stakeholder groups formed for
this work to continue to meet and strengthen their work, encourage
more/further implementation and testing of the indicators and
advocate for changes in policies and programmes. The national,
cross-sectoral group in the Philippines have already shared
the results of their work on indicators at a recent ASEAN working
group meeting where a number of countries expressed interest
in undertaking similar work at national and sub/national levels
both in the area of ECD and also for other areas of basic education.
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Some of
our other agreed priorities within ECD for the future, which
we hope to examine, explore and work on further include
HIV/AIDS
and the impact on children, families, other caregivers.
Early
literacy and family literacy efforts.
Conflict
and post-conflict situations and the impact on young children
and families
Street
Children and other children living in difficult circumstances
0-3
year olds: their care and development, child rearing practices,
early brain development
The
Children's Rights Convention: issues and follow-up for young
children
Training
and Capacity Building of ECD practitioners, programmers,
researchers, organisations and policy makers
Quality
delivery in ECD
Sustainability
(of programmes, local ECD organisations)
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| These priorities
were identified through the end of decade review and, most importantly,
through feedback from our regional and agency partners who are
working in a variety of contexts across countries. In some cases
many of the CG regional and agency members are already programming,
raising awareness and/or conducting research in one or more
of the above areas (i.e., early literacy, CRC, training & capacity
building). For areas such as HIV/AIDs or the development of
appropriate and relevant indicators for ECD, the CG plans to
review current practice and understanding and/or carry out new
piloting and action research on particular topics with the leadership
and involvement of some of our donor and regional partners. |
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| Proposed
Actions |
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Synthesise,
critically review and then share - in different forms -
the lessons, findings, and impact from practice and research
across regions. Specifically, the CG consortium is planning
to focus its three upcoming Coordinator's Notebooks on the
indicators work (described above), early and family literacy
and HIV/AIDs. The CG website is being updated and we are
looking at introducing on-line discussion groups for specific
priority issues that can provide further inputs into other
publications/dissemination activities.
Continue
to strengthen regional networking, capacity-building, outreach
and activities. This means widening the participation by
government and civil society in CG work, research and policy
advocacy. The range of CG partners should be used more effectively
in terms of targeting different levels to impact quality
and sustainability of ECD services and encourage better
and more relevant development of policies.
Strengthen
and/or establish more effective links with others working
in health, social welfare, community development, adult
literacy and basic education. We believe it is critical
to promote a more diverse and creative range of ECCD activities
that link different sectors, are more inclusive, and take
into better account children and families needs and circumstances.
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| For the
wider EFA Follow-up process: We would encourage those involved
to undertake broad-based consultations with existing regional
networks and activities where possible, including working with
the CG's regional and agency partners. |
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| A copy
of the discussions from the Dakar Strategy Session on ECD (in
French or English) is available for those interested. Please
contact Kathy Bartlett or Louise Zimanyi (Co-directors of the
CG Secretariat) at info@ecdgroup.com |
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