1. Michelle J. Neuman, Ph.D. Zanzibar - October 26, 2009
AFRICA EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE Rationale, Update, and Workshop Overview
Michelle J. Neuman, Ph.D.
Zanzibar - October 26, 2009

2. What is ECCD?
Support for young children’s survival, growth, development and learning including health, nutrition, nurturing care and stimulation
Prenatal to age 8: the most important developmental phase in human lifespan
A diverse field:
settings…homes, schools, community-based…
providers…public, private, non-profit…
activities…care, nutrition, parent education…
ages...prenatal, 0-2, 3-5, 6-8…
agencies…education, health, gender, social…
Children can thrive in many different kinds of environments.

3. Why is ECCD important? EFA Goals MDGs
Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children
Universal primary education by 2015
Learning and life skills programs for youth and adults
50% increase in adult literacy rates by 2015
Gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015
Improving quality of education
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality, and other health goals

4. Young children in Africa are vulnerable
High under-5 mortality rates (176 per 1000), most from preventable diseases
40% of children under age 5 are moderately or severely stunted
71 million children (61% of children under age 5) do not reach their full potential due to poverty and poor health, nutrition, and care
Children in emergency, conflict and post-conflict situations highly vulnerable
Children often begin school late, repeat grades, drop out early, and perform poorly. 38 million children are out of school
 HIGH QUALITY ECCD PROGRAMS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
High under 5 mortality rate in SSA: 176 children per 1,000 live births, 101 in South and West Asia
More than one-quarter of children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa are moderately or severely underweight 16

5. Early years are a window of opportunity
Sensing
Language
Pathways
Higher
(vision, hearing)
Cognitive Function -6 -3 3 6 9 1 4 8 12 16
Human abilities form very early and in predictable sequence of sensitive periods –
For example:
Language does not suddenly appear at some pre-determined age in some pre-determined fashion but rather,
emerges after a child ha begun to engage with his or her caregivers in such co-regulated activities as sharing, requesting, imitating, playing, naming, describing, apologizing, etc.
Months
Years
Conception
AGE
C. Nelson, in From Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000 5 5

6. Quality ECD improves education outcomes
Better access to primary school
Lower retention in primary school
Improved gender equity in education
Lower repetition rates
Better language development
Higher achievement in education

7. Source: Heckman & Carneiro (2003) Human Capital Policy

8. …but Africa lags behind in pre-primary enrolment
Regional GER is 14% vs. 40% globally
Developed/transition countries
Latin America/Caribbean
East Asia/Pacific
South and West Asia
Arab States
Sub-Saharan Africa
The dotted line signifies a break in the data series (new classification). See chapter 6.
Low participation in sub-Saharan Africa, South/West Asia, and Arab States
Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2007

9. Source: Global Education Digest, 2008
Pre-school Net Enrollment Rates (NER) are 10% or under in all countries except Tanzania (27) and Liberia (35)
Niger has the lowest NER at 1
Gross Enrollment Ratios (GER) are 1-4 points higher than the NER, except in Liberia (GER=100)
Primary school NER are significantly higher than pre-school NER and range from 43 in Niger to 98 in Tanzania
Note: Mali and Zambia figures for pre-school are gross enrollment ratios
Source: Global Education Digest, 2008

10. Equity: Poverty limits access to ECCD
Higher attendance for children from
richer households
Lower attendance among poor who
would benefit most
Other factors that limit access:
- Lack of mother’s secondary education
Living in rural households
- Lack of birth certificate 20 40 60 80
Niger
D. R. Congo
U. R. Tanzania
Lao PDR
Tajikistan
Uganda
Rwanda
Senegal
Egypt
Bolivia
Myanmar
Azerbaijan
Madagascar
Sierra Leone
Philippines
Cameroon
Kenya
Nicaragua
Mongolia
Haiti
Lesotho
India
Venezuela
Viet Nam
Colombia
Trinidad/Tobago
Attendance rates (%)
Attendance rates for three and four year olds.
Poverty Large gaps in access between richest and poorest households
Lack of mother’s secondary education
Place of residence Rural enrolment 10 to 30 percentage points lower than urban
Lack of centre close to home
Lack of birth certificate, often reflecting marginalization
Disadvantaged and vulnerable children stand to benefit most from early childhood programmes
Poorer households
Richer households
Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2007

11. Improve quality  Promote school readiness
The quality of interaction between carer and child is the single most important determinant of program success
Promoting school readiness also means making schools ready for children
Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2007

12. A holistic approach is important
Young children have multiple needs for:
Nurturing parenting, strong family and community support
Early stimulation and developmental activities
Preventive and primary health and nutrition
Safety/protection
Clean water, home and community environment
Iron, nutrition, deworming and psycho-social stimulation  positive impact on learning
Combining nutrition and early stimulation has larger and longer-lasting impact children’s health and learning than either alone 12

13. Purposes of the Africa ECCD Initiative
Improve the capacity of African countries to attain EFA Goals and MDGs by laying a strong foundation, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
Increase understanding among stakeholders of the importance of children’s early development and learning as a key ingredient in achieving EFA goals.
Foster the scaling up of ECCD policies and programs by helping countries obtain sustainable funding for cost-effective approaches.

14. Strategy: Mainstreaming ECD into EFA-FTI
“Fast Track Initiative” = global partnership to accelerate progress towards universal completion of quality primary education by 2015
One country, one education strategy, one process  Ed Sector Plan
Covering the whole sector
Realistic and Sustainable
Linked to the overall Poverty Reduction Strategy
Two sources of technical and financial support:
Education Program Development Fund (EPDF)
Catalytic Fund (CF)
ECD is essential ingredient for achieving universal primary completion!

15. Main Components:
Develop ECCD programs in at least 8 countries by providing country-level analytical support
Exchange ECCD policy and program experiences regionally
Technical workshop for 8 country teams (October 2009)
4th African international conference with ADEA WGECD (Nov 2009)
Build capacity of emerging leaders:
ECDVU 3rd cohort launched in February: Cameroon, The Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
New nutrition virtual university to be launched in fall 2009

16. Eight Countries Selected: 2009
Guinea
Liberia
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Tanzania/Zanzibar
Zambia

17. Scope of country EPDF support
Work with country teams and development partners to design and implement strong ECD components in education sector programs (and related policies and plans)
Activities vary according to local needs and priorities:
Analytical/technical support for ESP development
Capacity-development for implementation
Monitoring, evaluation, and knowledge-sharing

18. Workshop objectives
To provide a forum for high-level ECCD officials to:
Exchange ideas, experiences, and lessons learned to date
Receive technical support to strengthen results
Learn about new cost-effective, contextually-appropriate approaches for going to scale
Develop concrete strategies for going to scale in their own countries (briefing memo and presentation).

19. Workshop organization and outputs
Panel Sessions
Cross-Country Dialogue Sessions
Country Team Clinics  briefing memo and presentation
brief ministers and other officials who will attend Dakar conference
inform ECCD policy and program implementation within EFA-FTI
mobilize support from local development partners.