SPECIAL FEATURE
The Second International Conference on Early Childhood Development (ECD) was held last week in Asmara, Eritrea. In this first report, Bukola Olatunji, who covered the proceedings, writes that investing in basic education without doing the same for ECD may be likened to building a house from the roof down ...
'Early Learning Begets Later Learning'
The conference started on a beautiful note Five lovely little boys and girls, dressed in their traditional attires, who were drawn from different kindergartens in Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, had filed up to the stage, holding a bouquet of flowers each. They sang a song and recited a poem after which they joined their colleagues who had lined up along the aisles to give each of the participants at least one carnation flower. Some got two. Many of the children got hugs and pecks of appreciation in return.
The organisers said the gesture was an expression of the children's vision of a radiant future and a show of appreciation of the deliberation at the conference.
This was followed by a very colourful performance by the Asser Cultural Troupe made up boys and girls aged between nine and 18. The group that was formed about eight years ago presented the cultural dances of the major ethnic groups in the country and also sprinkled sweet smelling petals on the audience. Then came the children's message that was presented by 13-year-old Yasmin Tesfaldet, a Ninth grade student of Denden Secondary School.
Titled "We Are the Future But Help Us to Become Tomorrow", the children of the world, said "give us protection and security and above all, development. We want to develop our potential to the fullest and assimilate all the values of a free world. The world should be a safe place for us and for the future."
The children said "Remember! We are watching what is happening now we are here to participate with you. "The world should be a safe place for us and for the future", they said, pleading that "we want to be part of this vision, but help us today so that we can be the future and make the future a better a world."
About 300 participants from 30 countries, including Nigeria, participated in the conference organised by the State of Eritrea in collaboration with the World Bank, United nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).
It was a follow up to the first that was held in Kampala, Uganda three years ago. The central theme of the conference was "Early Childhood Interventions: What Works and Experiences Learned". It tried to cover issues related to policy development, integrated ECD planning, effective community approaches and practices, disadvantaged children and indigenous knowledge and child upbringing.
UNICEF, which officially recognised ECD as an important enterprise in 1974, said ECD has been a priority for UNICEF for over three decades. The Senior Advisor, Early Child Development at the New York Headquarters of UNICEF, Ms. Patrice Engle said in 1968, the importance of a holistic approach was first articulated by the then executive director, Henry Labouisse, who said:
"The needs of a child ought not to be compartmentalised in accordance with the concerns of one ministry or another, of one agency or another, or of this or that project. The purpose [of an inter-sectoral approach] is bringing together knowledge and skills from different professions and disciplines, and to provide services, which are mutually reinforcing in their long-term effects."
Integrated early child development has become one of five UNICEF priorities for the next four years.
One reason for this emergence, she said is that much has been accomplished in the past two decades in child survival and growth. Child death rates (under five mortality) were reduced by almost 60 percent between 1960 and 2000. In 1990, one out of three children under five years of age were malnourished; by 2000 that number had been reduced to a little over one out of four children under five. The percent of the population using improved drinking water sources increased from 71 percent coverage in 1990 to 78 percent coverage in 2000. Rates of exclusive breastfeeding have gone up by 8 per cent in the past decade, and of good complementary feeding by 15 per cent. The percentage of primary school-age children enrolled rose from 59 in 1960 to 82 in 1998.
But the median number of children in pre-schools across a sample of 48 developing countries is still only16 per cent, (with a few exceptions) and wealthy families are 2-3 times as likely as poor families to send children to these schools. The rate of children under five dying has decreased only 4 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to decreases of about 20 to 25 per cent in other regions. Rates of malnutrition have decreased significantly in all parts of the world except in western and eastern Africa, where they have increased over the past decade.
Ms. Engle said, "A good start to life is the foundation for ensuring children's rights. There is a well established body of evidence that choices made and actions taken by parents and society in the earliest years of childhood have a powerful and long-lasting influence on the progress of individual children, and on the wider progress of nations. Quality care and protection in these years are key to avoiding death, disease, stunted growth, trauma, malnutrition and developmental delays, while ensuring healthy growth, self-esteem, and the ability to learn. These in turn are central to school readiness, further learning, effectiveness of school-based programs, and future ability of children to contribute as parents, economic actors and citizens. Investing in young children will bring long-term social change and sustained realisation of children's right'
Early Childhood refers to the period up to eight years of age, or until the transition to school is completed. It includes the prenatal period, which has a major impact on later health, growth and development, but has a special focus on the first three years of life, the time of greatest vulnerability.
The Integrated Early Child Development (IECD) approach seeks to fulfil all of a child's indivisible rights to the best start in life and to fully developing her/his physical, cognitive, social and emotional potential.
Director of Human Development, Africa Region at the World Bank, Ms. Oey Meesook said in her address titled "Give Children a Better Chance: Investing in Early child Development" that ECD remains one of the most powerful levers for accelerating Education for All (EFA) and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
According to her, the early years last a lifetime and a child's early development will determine, by the time he or she enters school, whether he or she will succeed in school and later in life. "The evidence is compelling - that investing in young children will affect a country's economic development", she said.
Ms. Meesook said Amartya Sen, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics stresses that the capabilities that adults enjoy are deeply conditional on their experiences as children. Investing in education and other childhood opportunities can enhance future capabilities in many ways.
"It enhances our skills in living a good life, increases confidence, and also contributes to the ability of the adult to earn a living and to be economically productive."
According to another (2000) Nobel Prize winner, James Heckman, "early learning begets later learning, and early success breeds later success." This goes beyond kindergarten or nursery education that forms only a little part of ECD. It is a conscious development effort that begins from conception.
Significantly, she said, "our ECD interventions should make sure that today's poor children are not tomorrow's parents of poor children. Programmes of early child interventions are fundamentally about providing all children the chance to enter the game with a fair chance to win."
The World Bank official said a level playing field at the age of six might already represent an unfair context for children who are malnourished and have never had a book read to them. Creating an equal opportunity is therefore the first step. "Education can be a great equaliser but only if all children get an equal chance to take an advantage of it.
The World Bank has over 30 years of social science research that shows early interventions are effective in improving education attainment and reducing inequality. Those who participate have lower drop-out rates, higher enrolment, and higher achievement from primary grades to adulthood (as recognised by a wide range of programmes from the United States Head Start Programme, to India's Integrated Child Development Services, to Bolivia and Colombia's Non-formal Integrated Child Development Services).
Executive Secretary of the ADEA, Mr. Mamadou Ndoye regretted that despite the "international recognition of the importance of these early years, reality shows us that ECD initiatives are limited and unevenly distributed and that there are wide differences in quality. Most ECD programmes are developed and maintained by the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations. Many ECD initiatives suffer from inadequate funding and a lack of coherence, co-ordination, sustainability and long-term policies.
"Both national governments and their financing partners (bilateral) have neglected this area for too long, despite our collective commitment as expressed in World meetings such as Dakar and the Children's Summit.
He expressed happiness at the great efforts the Government of Eritrea has made to bring the participants together to discuss the advancement of the ECD agenda internationally, but particularly in Africa.
Eritrea, he said, is an excellent example that governments do take their commitment to ECD very serious.
He urged the conference to provide a strong statement to the forthcoming meeting of education ministers, in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, where ECD is expected to feature on the agenda; to take a holistic approach to early childhood development seriously.
Ndoye added that the conference was "an excellent opportunity to share and learn from a wealth of experiences across the continent, and to reflect on critical issues in order to formulate very specific recommendations we all can take home with us, and put into practice, whether we work in government, an NGO or an international organisation."
He said the time was right as many countries are engaged in national processes that will determine the development agenda for the coming years. "If we are serious about development and poverty reduction, we need to make sure that these policies embrace the development of the young child because ' (age) eight is too late'! We cannot afford to loose yet another generation."
During one of the press briefings, the leader of the ADEA Working Group on ECD, Ms. Jennette Vogelaar stressed that investing in basic education without investing in ECD would amount to a waste of resources. Indeed, the latter is the foundation for the former.
President of the State of Eritrea, Mr. Issayas Aferworki, threw a significant challenge while declaring the conference open earlier when he called on the world to "let us walk the talk". He said ECD programmes have a reasonable chance of success only where there are focussed and results-oriented policies and programmes from governments, substantial financial support from governments and development partners, as well as strong partnership between governments, local communities and the private sector.
At the end of the conference participants indeed reached consensus on the basic recommendations and a framework that could be used as a reference for action, collaboration, networking and future follow-up until the next Third International ECD Conference.
As a preamble. They noted that "without doubt investment in early childhood development is intrinsically related to the promotion of child right, poverty alleviation, sustainable human resource development and Basic Education for All and Health for All. To this end ECD programmes should be an integral part of the National Development Goals and aim at establishing health security, environmental security, food security, social protection and education for all children.
The Frameworks urges for the concerted efforts of all in ECD in the next two years and will have the following orientations: -
To base itself on the existing Global initiatives and instruments of development namely, the Convention on the Rights of Children, The Universal Declaration of Children's Rights, The Dakar Framework for Action, NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals.
It emphasises that the child is at the centre of all action, and the focus is on a
Holistic development. It also realises the importance of integrated early interventions and good beginnings for development at individual and society level and recognises the great role and multiplier effect of ECD programmes as a basis for sustainable human resource development and poverty alleviation.
The framework also expresses the great importance of macro level policy framework, as well as integrated and co-ordinated planning as essential steps for the success of ECD programmes. ECD investments should therefore be based on integrated approach, geared towards the all round development that encompasses health, nutrition, learning and social protection and should aim at development to the fullest capacity of their potential. Mother-child care is an essential strategy to be followed. The use of a systemic approach to link the continuity of all stages starting from birth should be advocated and ECD should be an integral and decisive part of basic education and ensure smooth transition.
It also stresses the importance of inclusive programmes for children and in particular viable practices for reintegrating orphans and HIV/AIDS victims into family settings.
It also recognises the great urgency and priority of averting the awesome consequences of HIV/AIDS and reaffirms the great role which ECD programmes have to play in preventing and caring for the affected children.
The framework asserts that ECD programmes could have equitable (in particular gender equity) and practical orientation if they are institutionalised in communities, and reaffirms the importance of promoting diversified modes in the delivery of ECD services, including through parenting enrichment. The use of strong values and indigenous knowledge rooted in the society is recommended, while the importance of bridging all community level agents working in all areas to maximise resource utilisation and raise effectiveness in ECD is also recognised.
Internal and external partnerships for the development and success of ECD and in particular to work for the strong Government-Community Bond at all levels are also important. So also is institutional capacity building and networking in particular at community level for ECD and the vital role of information technology in this endeavor.
The three major action points include policy development, promotion of research and information as well as institutional development
It is expected that the Asmara Recommendation, Synthesis Documents and the Framework for Action will be used to promote advocacy at local, national, regional and global levels.
Policy makers in respective countries are to be encouraged to integrate the recommendations and framework for action in all important sub regional, regional and global events, conferences, summits, etc. This would apply in the first place to the forthcoming MINEDAF VIII meeting and ensure the support of the partner organisations the World Bank, UNICEF, ADEA, UNESCO among others.
The greatest challenge perhaps is walking the talk.
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