The Institute for Early Childhood Care and Development (IECD) / UNESCO Category 2 Institute met the local press to outline preparations for a Regional Workshop on transforming Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Africa which it will host from 5th to 7th June.
Senior Government Officials and ECCE experts from the 22 countries from both the Southern and the Eastern African Community are expected to participate. The workshop is a follow-up to the one organized by UNESCO last November to celebrate one year of the Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for transforming Early Childhood Care and Education to ensure progress towards attaining SDG 4.2 which seeks to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.
The Chief Executive Officer of IECD, Mrs. Shirley Choppy told the local journalists at a networking event this morning, that the main objective of the June workshop is to “review progress across participating countries and chart future strategies for fulfilling the Tashkent commitments with a focus on knowledge management, capacity building, and monitoring and impact evaluation. It also aims at providing opportunities for increased collaboration and knowledge sharing of success stories, best practices, and challenges faced during the execution of ECCE initiatives”. It will provide a platform for exploring strategies and collaborative initiatives to propel the region forward in achieving its ECCE goals with the support of IECD as a Category 2 Institute for ECCE she added.
The IECD recognizes the crucial role of ECCE in shaping the future of the world and sees the ‘Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming ECCE’ as a blueprint for a comprehensive framework for advancing ECCE, ensuring equitable access, and fostering the holistic development of young children in alignment with the targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals she went on to explain.
The workshop will be a blend of plenary sessions, panel discussions, working groups, and interactive sessions. Each country will make a 6-minutes presentation on the successes and challenges in the implementation of the Tashkent Declaration in their respective countries.
