Concept Note

Fourth African International Conference on Early Childhood Development

From Policy to Action:

Expanding Investment in ECD for Sustainable Development

10 – 13 November 2009
Dakar, Senegal

Meridian Presidential Complex

Introduction and Background

Increasingly governments understand that early childhood development (ECD) is the foundation
of improved national productivity, good citizenship, and sustainable development.

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other world regions, Heads of State, First Ladies, and Ministers
of Finance, Planning and ECD are exerting striking leadership for expanding investment in ECD.
Quite literally, the wellbeing of Africa’s future generations rests in the hands of national decision
makers and communities mobilised to develop comprehensive, nationwide ECD services.

Our Fourth African International ECD Conference will include many African leaders. It will give us
an excellent opportunity to move the ECD agenda forward rapidly in SSA.

Each of the three prior Conferences have been landmarks in promoting ECD in Africa. Our Fourth
ECD Conference will build on that proud legacy. Past conference themes have included:

 Kampala, Uganda, 1999: Capacity Building in Africa, focusing on country-level

experiences and innovative ECD training, research and community programming.

 Asmara, Eritrea, 2002: Health, Nutrition, Early Childhood Care and Education
(ECE/ECCE), and Children in Need of Special Protection, with emphases on service
integration and holistic child development. For each thematic area, the following four
areas were discussed: 1) policy, planning and research; 2) community-based
approaches; 3) disadvantaged children and children at risk; and 4) indigenous
knowledge.

 Accra, Ghana, 2005: Moving Early Childhood Forward in Africa, included the issuing of a
Communiqué regarding the way forward. (Pence 2008)

The ADEA ECD Working Group considers ECD to include services for children and families from
pre-conception to eight years of age. Taking an integrated approach to ECD, the Working Group
includes colleagues devoted to children’s services in the fields of health, nutrition,
sanitation/hygiene, education and child rights and protection. Special attention is given to issues
of vulnerability including HIV/AIDS, other chronic diseases such as malaria, and children affected
by armed conflicts, severe poverty and malnutrition. A gender focus is taken, and maternal–child
health and parent education are considered to be basic services for each SSA nation.
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The ADEA ECD Working Group adheres to the 4 Cornerstones of the Consultative Group on
Early Childhood Care and Development:

1. Start at the beginning: services for children 0 – 3

2. Get ready for success: services for children 3 – 6
3. Improve primary school quality: services for children 6 – 8
4. Include early childhood in policies: ECD policy support

Context and Rationale: Current ECD Challenges in Africa

Well over half of Africa’s 130 million children from birth to six years of age live in poverty and
suffer from multiple challenges that result in very high rates of developmental delay, malnutrition,
chronic illness, and disability (UNICEF 2008). Furthermore, malnutrition is highly correlated with
developmental delays, and especially with poor cognitive development (Grantham-McGregor et al
2007). The scourges of HIV/AIDS, malaria, endemic violent conflicts and severe poverty, affect
young children and mothers the most. The region is expected to have over 18 million orphans by
2010, due especially to HIV/AIDS and violent conflicts (UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID, 2004).

As though the foregoing challenges were not enough, SSA is also reeling from the
growing impact of the current global economic crisis. In Africa, the economic crisis is
exacerbated by food, fuel, and climate crises that are impacting young SSA children and
parents the most. These impacts have been felt more slowly in some SSA countries than in
others; however, during the coming months and years, contracting financial and commercial
markets will have an increasingly negative impact on national economies and regional trade in
SSA.

Safety nets in the fields of education, health, nutrition and social protection need to be put into
place rapidly to avoid the having the poor, and especially poor children, suffer disproportionately.
Recently, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick stated, “A world that doesn’t learn from
history is condemned to repeat it. We need to learn from the history of past crises, when
governments squeezed for cash, cut into social programs with often devastating impacts on the
poor. People in developing countries have much less cushion [than people in developed
countries]: no savings, no insurance, no unemployment benefits, and often no food. During the
East Asia crisis, there was a 22 percent increase in anemia among pregnant women in Thailand,
while school enrolments fell in Indonesia. This kind of reversal can affect a generation. We must
not let it happen again” (World Bank 2009).

As a consequence of this approach, the World Bank is boldly increasing its financing facility for
food that includes school feeding services, food supplements, and micronutrients for mothers and
their children. World Bank Group Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala observed, “The
continuing risky economic environment, combined with continuing volatility for food prices, means
for poor people the food crisis is far from over. Many poor countries have not benefitted from
some moderation of food price spikes in global markets. The decision to expand the facility will
help ensure fast track measures are in place for continued rapid response to help countries.”

Similarly, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank investments in social protection are
rising rapidly. Specifically, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have been found to be
effective in both stimulating spending and protecting the poor at a relatively low cost, often less
than 1% of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Successful CCT programmes, such as Mexico’s Oportunidades, or Brazil’s Bolsa Familia, cost on
the order of 0.4 percent of GDP, while Ethiopia’s largest safety net program, the Productive
Safety Net, costs about 1.7 percent of GDP (World Bank 2009). CCT programmes have been
shown to achieve striking improvements in access to and use of services for ECD, education,
nutrition and health (Fiszbein and Schady 2009).

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Because of the global economic crisis, African countries face ever more urgent needs to expand
their investment in ECD. However, few services for parent education and support are available to
highly stressed and depressed parents in SSA. Few countries have any services for children
from conception to 3 years with the exception of some health and nutrition services. Parent
education and early stimulation activities are largely absent. It is estimated that preschool
education reaches less than 12% of children ages 3 to 6 years in Africa (UNESCO Institute of
Statistics, 2008). Furthermore, many of the children enrolled in pre-primary education are
overage due to a wide range of reasons from conflicts and parental attitudes to a lack of nearby
primary schools.

ECD services tend to be low in quality, and only a handful of countries have established
standards and regulations for ECD services. It is generally agreed that ECD services, and
especially pre-primary education, need to be greatly improved and enriched throughout the
region. The expansion and improvement of early childhood services for education, health,
nutrition and protection would lead to greatly improved internal efficiency of school systems and
increased primary completion rates. ECD services would lower education costs and expand
national productivity (Pence et al 2008).

Young children cannot wait!

They and their parents urgently require intensive and high-quality ECD interventions that are
community based and culturally appropriate. They need integrated services that seamlessly join
together parent education, psychosocial stimulation, health care, nutritional supplements,
sanitation, hygiene, and child rights and protection.

The triangle of parents – community – teachers is of primary importance for ensuring the
vision that all SSA children will have a good beginning, are ready for school, and will achieve
success in learning and life. Furthermore, ECD services are essential for national economic
growth, productivity and competitiveness.

District and local governments and empowered parents can play critical roles in planning,
implementing and evaluating services for parents and young children. Communities’ volunteer
work and donations of materials can absorb many costs and help ensure programme
sustainability and effectiveness. Both financial and in-kind costs should be carefully monitored in
all ECD programmes. Increasingly, simulations will be used to maximise national investments in
integrated and sectoral ECD services (Brandon 2008).

Abundant evidence from international experiences shows that ECD helps break the cycle of
poverty resulting from teenage parenting, impoverished single parent households, developmental
delays, malnutrition and disabilities in children, subsequent school drop out, low productivity, and
often, criminality.

As explained in Escaping the Poverty Trap: Investing in Children in Latin America, ECD does this
by creating a “virtuous cycle of development” (Moran et al 2004). Parent education and other
ECD services lead to better parenting and child development, improved health, nutrition and
school readiness, increased completion of primary and secondary school, higher economic
productivity, lower rates of criminality, and better citizenship (Moran 2004, Amani Tanzania 2003).
With high levels of child poverty in SSA, if the next generation does not receive ECD services, the
result will be another generation of impoverished families. And the cycle of poverty will continue.

With greatly expanded investments in ECD, increasingly African children will be born stronger and
healthier, and child malnutrition will become a thing of the past. Developmental delays will be
overcome and child development will greatly improve. Children will enter school on time, not
repeat grades, complete primary and secondary school, and a much higher percentage of young
people will go on to university. They will become productive and better citizens who pay taxes
and do not need costly welfare, rehabilitation and justice services. By investing more in ECD

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now, SSA will join other world regions in overcoming poor child development and achieving a
virtuous cycle of development.

To date, many African countries have developed innovative and successful pilot programs, but
only a few of them have been replicated successfully and gone to nationwide scale. Pilot
programmes tend to be little known, and usually they serve only a small number of children and
parents. Many of them have been unsustainable due especially to a lack of continuing support.

After over 10 years of intensive work to prepare ECD policies and pilot projects in Africa,
now is the time to:

 Conduct strong policy advocacy to expand national and international investment in ECD;
 Evaluate promising parenting and child development projects and programmes, and
 Bring them to scale as rapidly as possible.

Expanding Investment in ECD: The Number One Social and Economic Investment

Ministers of Planning and Finance of Africa are becoming increasingly aware that investing in
ECD is essential for attaining sustainable development, and very especially for achieving Poverty
Reduction Strategies, Education for All, and Millennium Development Goals.

Many SSA ministers now understand that ECD yields one of the highest rates of return of any
social or economic investment (Heckman 2006, 2007; Rolnick 2006). As a result, Planning and
Finance Ministers are joining Ministers of Education, Health, Social Protection, First Ladies, and
others to promote expanded investment in services for parents and young children from prenatal
to 8 years of age, with an emphasis upon vulnerable children, including those from rural areas,
and those affected by HIV/AIDS, war and severe poverty.

Leading international and national economists and finance ministers now rank ECD as the
Number One national investment in terms of return on investment. At a meeting of the Inter-
American Development Bank held in Costa Rica in 2007, 40 economists and finance ministers
ranked ECD first among a list of 29 highly effective social and economic investments. (Verdisco,
2008)1

According to a recent Rand study on economic development, “The fundamental insight of

economics when comparing early childhood policies with other social investments is that a
growing body of program evaluations shows that early childhood programs have the potential to
generate government savings that more than repay their costs and produce returns to society as
a whole that outpace most public and private investments” (Kilburn, 2008, p. 11).

As a result of growing interest in investing in ECD, ministries of planning and finance in many
countries are playing more active roles in formulating public sector social budgets pertaining to
children. They are increasing funding for child development services, from pre-conception to
early primary school.

Financing children’s services is sectoral in part, including especially the education, health,
nutrition, protection and sanitation sectors. It is also inter-sectoral, and increasingly an
“integrated” approach is being taken. Integrated programmes help countries maximise the
effectiveness of their investments in children (Vargas-Barón, 2005). For example, a child with
malnutrition is also delayed in his or her development, and s/he requires both nutritional and

1
The top 10 ranked policy investments were: 1) ECD; 2) fiscal rules; 3) increased investment in
infrastructure including maintenance; 4) policy and program evaluation agency; 5) conditional cash transfers;
6) universal health insurance: basic package; 7) nutrition programs for pre-school age children; 8) crime
prevention through environmental design; 9) replacement of taxes on formal employment with other taxes;
10) adoption of policies and services to reduce transaction costs for trade.

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educational interventions. A child living in a community with poor water falls prey to illnesses that
cause developmental delays and chronic ill health requiring health and early childhood education
services. A child who is not well-nurtured and stimulated will fall behind in his or her
development, perform poorly in school, and will need both protective and special education
services. Fundamentally, vulnerable children and their parents require well-coordinated and
integrated ECD services to meet their needs.

To manage the change from strictly sectoral approaches to new forms of inter-sectoral integration
and coordination, Inter-sectoral ECD Councils have been developed in many countries.
Increasingly, with support from central government ministries, new forms of comprehensive ECD
planning and programme development are occurring at decentralised regional, district and sector
levels. At a result, early childhood budgets have expanded notably in several countries outside of
Europe, North America, and Australia, such as in Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya,
Mexico, Senegal, South Africa and Turkey.

However, many policy makers of majority world countries still underestimate the importance of
investing in children. The situation of children in nations that have experienced armed conflict or
natural disasters is particularly dire.

Unless national budgets and international donor grants for ECD services are expanded
significantly and soon, children entering primary school in many countries will continue to have
significant development delays and disabilities caused by poverty, malnutrition, chronic illnesses,
and socio-emotional issues related community conflicts, domestic violence and abusive child
labour. Many of these vulnerable and fragile children will repeat grades and drop out, causing
high costs to education systems and the country as a whole.

This low level of internal efficiency in education systems causes many high costs to the country.
The World Bank has demonstrated that if African countries were to make significant investments
in ECD, in a few years the money saved from improving the internal efficiency of the education
system would amply cover ECD service costs. (Jaramillo and Mingat 2005)

Economic Rates of Return on Investment in Human Capital

The rates of return on investment in ECD are astounding. In various countries, they range from
$3 to $17 for every $1 invested. A recent study in Turkey yielded a minimum of $8.2 per $1
invested (Göksel 2008). On the average, a return of approximately $7 can be expected from
investment in quality ECD programmes.

These long-term results are due especially to savings in costs for remedial education and
training, special education, health and nutrition care, welfare and protective services, juvenile
delinquency, crime and justice system costs. Longitudinal research in several countries on the
results of quality ECD programmes, including both home visiting and centre-based services, have
demonstrated very similar outcomes. These results have encouraged many countries to expand
their investments in integrated ECD.

Dr. James Heckman, Nobel Laureate in economics, studied the rate of return on investment in
ECD in relation to other investments in education and training. His writings include the chart
presented below (Heckman 2007).

The highest rates of return result from programmes that target children from birth to 3 years of
age. Job training, although essential, yields the lowest rate of return.

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Rates of Return to Human Capital Investment at Different Ages:

Return to an Extra Dollar at Various Ages

Programs targeted towards the earliest years

Rate of return to investment in human capital

Preschool programs

Schooling

Job training

0-3 4-5 School Post-school

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Brain research reveals 0 to 3 as the most important period of child development

Extensive brain research has shown that around 80% of a child’s brain growth and synapse
development occurs during the period from gestation to age 3 (Shonkoff and Phillips 2000). The
field of neuroscience is revealing exciting results every day, all demonstrating the high level of
impact due to good nurturing, stimulation and early learning activities, nutrition, health care and
safety on children’s life-long learning and productivity.

The period of gestation to age three is the foundation for all later growth and
development. If children who are fragile, pre-term, low-birth weight, at-risk,
developmentally delayed or disabled do not receive appropriate, quality ECD
services, they will never reach their inborn potential. It is highly likely that they will
become unproductive, depressed citizens, and potentially, a dangerous force for
future cyclical social unrest.

In spite of striking research results, investment in children from pre-conception and pregnancy to
3 years of age continues to be very low, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The family has
generally been considered to be adequate for ensuring the good development of each child.
However, in spite of all of its strikingly positive progress, distressing statistics related to infant and
child mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and high attrition rates in primary school belie this widely
held belief.

The following chart reveals the low level of investment children from birth to 3 years, not only in
Sub-Saharan Africa but also in several other regions of the world.

Programmes for Children Under 3:

World

Arab States

Central/East. Europe

Sub-Saharan Africa

East Asia/Pacific

South/West Asia

L. America/Carib.

Central Asia

N. America/W. Europe

0% 50% 100%

Countries with at least one formal programme for

children under 3 years, 2003 Source: UNESCO GMR, 2007

In general, countries of the majority world have low rates of investment in programmes for
children under 3 years and their parents. Such programmes could include:
• Pre-conception and prenatal education and care services;
• Parent education and support for all parents living in poverty or suffering from post-
conflict disorders, depression or other stressors;
• Developmental screening, assessments and early childhood intervention for children
with developmental delays, disabilities or malnutrition;

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• Community-based, integrated and quality centre-based early care and learning

services, especially for the children of single, rural or urban working mothers;
• Combined nutritional supplementation and stimulation services for malnourished
infants and children; and
• Quality preventive health, nutrition and sanitation education and care services.

Some economic planners and political leaders have observed that a country must wait a long
time to achieve results from investments in children. They often state that they tend to ignore the
high return on investment from ECD services because they want to achieve short- and medium-
term results and political impacts. Furthermore, children and impoverished parents rarely form
effective lobbies for children’s services. Children and many rural peoples do not vote in elections.

However, it must be emphasised that ECD has many short- and medium-term results as
well as long-term results.

Some Short-Term Impacts of ECD Investments

Although it is true that investments in quality ECD services do yield striking long-term results,
especially for a country’s most vulnerable children, it is also the case that there are many short-
term returns from investing in prenatal and ECD services, such as:

Reduced health care costs

• Pre-conception and prenatal education and primary health care yield greatly lowered
health care costs in terms of neonatal intensive care, reduced nutritional rehabilitation,
and fewer pre-term and low birth weight infants requiring expensive services.
• Early health and nutrition care, breastfeeding support and parent education for infant
and child development result in healthier and safer children who require fewer costly
emergency, clinic and hospital services.
• Health economists report that each $1 spent on sanitation saves $7 in health care
costs and lost productivity.

Reduced incidence of developmental delays and disabilities and lowered need for early
childhood intervention and costly special education services
• Pre-conception and prenatal education services reduce the number of high-risk
parents who require intensive early childhood intervention services after birth because
they improve child outcomes and parenting capacities.
• Early childhood intervention services for children from birth to 3 years of age with low
birth weight or pre-term birth status, incipient developmental delays or disabilities,
improve child development significantly, and they help parents to cope and improve
their parenting skills.
• When children with developmental delays or disabilities are identified and served at
an older age, the costs of special education and therapeutic services tend to be much
higher and they usually continue for many years.

Reduced rates of malnutrition and nutrition supplementation costs

• Parent education about child nutrition, infant stimulation and child development lowers
costs incurred by nutritional rehabilitation services.
• Parent education including nutrition education improves child and family nutrition and
prevents stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and reduces the need for later nutrition
interventions.

Reduced fear related to child security and improved family productivity, especially in post-
conflict countries
• In nations recovering from violent conflicts, the benefits of providing safe, high-quality

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child care and development services give parents a sense of security that enables
mothers to work and become more productive.

Some Medium-Term Impacts of ECD Investments

In addition to short-term cost reductions, several medium-term savings can be achieved,

including:

Improved education outcomes and increased internal efficiency of education system

• ECD services improve the rates of timely enrolment in primary school, and children
are better prepared for success in school.
• Once in school, children with early childhood learning services through pre-primary
education tend to have better attendance records, repeat grades less, drop out of
school less, and complete their primary education.
• In the aggregate, these improvements of the internal efficiency of primary education
reduce national education costs. These savings often more than compensate for
expanding investment in ECD. They, in turn, yield longer-term savings related to
improved national productivity, increased taxes, better citizenship behaviours, and
reduced costs for juvenile delinquency and adult criminality.

Reduced costs for special education in primary and secondary school

• Children with high-risk status, socio-emotional issues or developmental delays who
receive early childhood intervention services incur lower (or no) costs for special
education services during primary and secondary school.

Reduced child welfare and protective services costs

• Parent education and child development services combined with good case
management and tracking systems improve child rearing, reduce the incidence of
child abuse, and reduce child welfare costs.

Reduced juvenile delinquency other violence-related services costs

• In countries recovering from conflicts, medium-term benefits accrue from developing
young citizens who are non-violent and productive. ECD services promote inclusion
and respect, thereby enabling the creation of a virtuous cycle that reduces detrimental
and costly community violence.

These striking short- and medium-term returns on investment have yet to be quantified in SSA,
but they promise to be substantial. Any one of them would validate increasing investment in
young children and their parents.

The preparation of ECD Policies and Strategic Plans, affords all African countries a golden
opportunity to plan for increasing investments in services for young children. The ECD
Policy should be linked with each country’s Vision statement, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper,
Millennium Development and Education for All goals, targets for education and health SWAPs,
and national policies for education, health, nutrition, protection, and sanitation.

New and expanded ECD investments will strengthen families; improve children’s development,
health and nutrition; achieve children’s rights; increase child safety; reduce children’s suffering;
ensure children achieve their potential; decrease poverty; and help reduce short- and long-term
post-conflict violence and crime. Consistent and compelling research results give us abundant
reasons to believe that increased investment in ECD will improve Africa’s future economic growth
and productivity, global competitiveness, health status, and citizen participation in governance.

Reaching a Crossroads: Moving from Policy to Action

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ECD policies help African nations focus on child development as well as child survival. They
promote the development of innovative and integrated ECD programmes that are community-
based, culturally competent, and use trained paraprofessionals and volunteers. Professionals are
increasingly used for policy implementation, programme leadership, training, supervision, and
monitoring and evaluation. Policies also help nations develop effective coordination systems,
build enthusiasm for the pre- and in-service training of ECD personnel. They help to create new
regional/sub-regional collegial relationships.

As of December 2008, 19 countries in SSA had adopted ECD policies, 20 are currently preparing
them, and 12 had not begun as yet. In all 76% of countries in SSA are engaged in ECD policy
planning or implementation. Clearly major effort needs to be continued to develop more ECD
policies and to include ECD in other multi-sectoral and sectoral policies and strategic plans.
However, greater emphasis must be placed on policy advocacy and implementation. Current
research is showing that continued policy advocacy is essential to ECD programme development
and to taking programmes to scale (Wolfensohn Institute 2009; Vargas-Baron 2009). Initial
reviews of policy activities in countries that have adopted ECD strategies reveal that some are not
implementing their ECD policies as well or rapidly as had been hoped. In each case, the country
had not developed an institutional structure as a “motor” for policy implementation (Vargas-Baron
2009).

Taking Quality ECD Programmes to Scale

Keeping in mind the importance of improving the quality of ECD programmes (Hyde et al 2008), it
is time for ECD leaders to focus on developing strategies for taking promising programmes to
scale with nationwide coverage. Too many ECD services remain at the level of pilot projects
serving only a few families. Due to incomplete programme development processes and a lack of
planning for going to scale, these projects either remain small or disappear once their funding
base erodes.

Issues remain with respect to developing more community-based, integrated ECD services that
feature community management, complete programme development processes, culturally
competent services, and sustainable, diversified funding support. In addition, the evidence base
for scaling up promising ECD programmes in SSA must be established as soon as possible.

Serving Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS, War and Severe Poverty

Although South Asia has more vulnerable children, Africa has the highest proportion of vulnerable
children in relation to the total population. Children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS have
reached astounding proportions, and just as terrible are the hundreds of thousands of children
dying and suffering from malaria and other diseases. War has affected so many infants and
young children in many countries. Many have lived their entire lives in camps for refugees or
internally displaced people. Severe poverty compounds their poverty.

This conference will view the expansion of investment in ECD services, developing and
implementing ECD policies, and taking ECD programmes to scale through the lens of meeting the
needs of Africa’s most vulnerable children.

Profile of Expected Conference Participants

A wide array of African and international leaders will participate in the Fourth African International
ECD Conference. They include:

 Heads of State
 First Ladies
 Ministers of Finance, Planning, Education, Health, Sanitation, Social Protection, Justice,

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Gender and Family Development, and Local Government

 International Development Partners
 ECD Professionals in the fields of Education, Health, Sanitation, and Child Rights and
Protection.

Conference Objectives and Expected Results

The Fourth African International Conference will seek to achieve the following objectives and
results for SSA:

Conference Objectives Expected Results

To promote dialogue about ECD among African Conference participants report they were
leaders and ECD Professionals regarding ECD actively engaged in formal and informal
investment and costs, policy planning and discussions about Conference sub-themes.
implementation, going to scale, and services
for vulnerable children.
To give Conference participants opportunities Conference participants attend plenary
to gain new knowledge and skills, especially sessions, participate in breakout sessions,
with respect to ECD innovations in Africa and receive the Guidebook of ECD Innovations in
internationally. Africa, and attend the Development
Marketplace Poster Sessions. In addition,
some will choose to go on field trips.

Conference participants report they learned

To give greater recognition to needs and
demands for expanded ECD services in Africa.
To promote greater investment and donor
coordination in ECD through including national
decision makers and international development
partners in policy dialogue.
To encourage increased action research on
ECD and the utilisation of research results for
policy planning.
To prepare and adopt a Conference
Communiqué with concrete strategies and next
steps to expand investment in ECD and bring
ECD services to scale.
To provide guidance to the ADEA Working
Group for ECD in SSA regarding Conference
follow-up during 2010 – 2012.
new knowledge and skills.
Keynotes and panels focus on Conference sub-
themes regarding needs and demands for ECD
services.
Some panels and roundtables include decision
makers and international development
partners, and they focus on promoting
expanded ECD investment and donor
coordination.
Key panels encourage the development of
research projects and promote evidenced-
based decision-making.
A Conference Communiqué is adopted, and it
includes concrete strategies to increase
investment in ECD and take promising
programmes to scale.
Guidance for the ADEA WG/ECD regarding
Conference follow-up is included in the
Conference Report.

Conference Theme and Sub-Themes

From Policy to Action:

Expanding Investment in ECD for Sustainable Development

The Conference will revolve around the following Sub-Themes:

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 Investment in ECD: Expanding ECD investment and assessing costs in a world of

economic, food, fuel and ecological crises

 ECD Policies: Implementing and strengthening ECD policies and plans

 Going to Scale: Increasing access to quality ECD and going to scale

 Vulnerable Children: Expanding services for vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS,

war and severe poverty

Under each Sub-Theme, participants will engage in dialogue on:

 Day 1: Why and how: rationale, knowledge and skills

 Day 2: What has been accomplished: experiences in planning and implementing ECD

 Day 3: Who and when: planning next steps to expand and improve ECD

Main Conference Activities

10 to 12 November: Core Conference Activities

 Keynote speakers will share new ideas for ECD strategies and initiatives.
 Technical panels will include Ministers, planners and ECD specialists from Africa,
Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the US.
 Plenary sessions will present major topics under each sub-theme.

12 November 2009, Roundtables, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

First Ladies’ Roundtable

All First Ladies participating in the Conference are invited to join this Roundtable. In addition,
from three to four ECD resource specialists will be present to support the Roundtable discussion
process.

Objectives
√ Propose steps for urgently expanding investment in ECD and scaling up ECD services in
Africa, especially in light of economic, food, fuel and ecological crises.
√ Promote the development and implementation of ECD policies, strategic plans and
annual action plans.
√ Reinforce national and regional commitment to serve Africa’s most vulnerable children
and parents.
√ Promote networking among First Ladies to promote ECD at national and regional levels.
√ Review the Conference Communiqué.

Ministerial Leadership Roundtable

Ministers of Finance, Planning, Education, Health, Nutrition, Sanitation, Protection and other
ministries participating at the Conference are invited to join this Roundtable. It will also include

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parliamentarians and representatives of regional economic communities. In addition, from two to

three ECD resource specialists will be present to support the Roundtable discussion process.

Objectives
√ Propose steps for urgently expanding investment in ECD and scaling up ECD services in
Africa, especially in light of economic, food, fuel and ecological crises.
√ Promote the development and implementation of ECD policies, strategic plans and
annual action plans.
√ Reinforce national and regional commitment to serve Africa’s most vulnerable children
and parents.
√ Promote inter-ministerial coordination for ECD at national and regional levels.
√ Review the Conference Communiqué.

International Development Partners’ Roundtable

International development partners including all participating multilateral and bilateral donors, UN
agencies, international NGOs and foundations are invited to join this Roundtable.

Objectives
√ Consider the impacts of economic, food, fuel and ecological challenges as a basis for
promoting strong donor support to expand investment and bring ECD services to scale.
√ Identify and propose new initiatives for collaborative ECD funding support
√ Promote partnerships, coordination and alignment with national ECD policies and plans
√ Identify ways to support national-level organizational “motors” for implementing ECD
policies and strategic plans
√ Renew partners’ commitment to serving vulnerable young children and parents
√ Provide comments on Conference Communiqué

Sub-Regional Roundtables (3 Rooms)

Conference Delegates from the sub-regions of 1) Southern Africa and Indian Ocean, 2) Eastern
and North Africa, and 3) Central and Western Africa will participate in 3 Roundtables that will be
held at the same time. Lists of countries per sub-region will be provided, and if sub-regions wish,
they may split up into smaller sub-regions within their halls.

Objectives
√ Identify and list initiatives for expanding investment in ECD and bringing ECD services to
scale in their sub-region
√ Promote the development, adoption and implementation of ECD policies
√ Identify ways to expand services for Africa’s most vulnerable children and parents
√ Promote activities for ECD networking and exchange and provide suggestions to the
Steering Committee of the ADEA ECD Working Group
√ Provide comments on Conference Communiqué

12 November, Final Plenary and Closing Session 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

 Presentation of the results of the 6 Roundtables
 Discussion and approval of Dakar ECD Communiqué
 Final Keynote Speech: A Call to Action!

13 November, First Ladies of Africa Colloquium

 Ways to work together to increase national support for ECD and achieve phased
investment targets in education, health/nutrition, child rights and protection and

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Emily Vargas-Baron

sanitation.
 Ways to create nationwide integrated services for young children and parents in
partnership with communities, civil society and the private sector

13 November, Field Visits and Final Gathering to Celebrate Children, Stadium event

African ECD Leaders Will Share New Ideas and Skills

In addition to Plenary Sessions, Concurrent Panel Sessions, and Roundtables, the following
activities and resources will be featured at the Conference:

 Gala Reception and Cultural Evening, 10 November. This unforgettable event will
include great Senegalese artists Ismaël Lo and Youssou N’Dour, dancers, and many
opportunities for informal sharing and networking.

 Guide to ECD Innovations in Africa. This Guide will include innovative Africa ECD
strategies, lessons learned, and key tools. It will be compiled based on submissions from
each country. A copy of the Guide will be given to each Conference Participant.
Monetary Prizes will be awarded to the organisations receiving the most votes for
excellence.

 Global ECD Progress Report: A Focus on Africa. The first edition of this publication of
the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development and The RISE
Institute will focus on ECD achievements in Africa. A copy of the Progress Report will be
given to each Conference Participant.

 Development Marketplace: Participatory Poster Presentations, evening of 11

November. Active Poster Presentations will be conducted on ECD policies and strategic
plans, innovative ECD projects, curricula, educational materials, skills and methods,
monitoring, evaluation and research findings. Guidance for submitting Posters for
consideration will be provided. Monetary Prizes will be awarded to the presentations
receiving the most votes for excellence.

 Exhibition and Living Displays will be presented including:

o Senegalese children demonstrate early learning activities
o International agencies, non-governmental organisations present their
programmes
o Educational firms and organisations offer curricula, manuals, educational
materials, learning toys and books

 Field Trips. Visits will be offered to view innovative programmes for the early
development of the Senegalese Child.

Conference Planning and Organisation

Conference Sponsors
 Aga Khan Foundation
 Association for the Development of Education in Africa and its Working Group for ECD
 Bernard van Leer Foundation
 Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development
 Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU)

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 Education for All Fast Track Initiative

 PLAN International
 Republic of Senegal
 Save the Children/USA
 UNESCO and UNESCO/BREDA
 UNICEF
 World Bank
 World Health Organisation

ADEA Working Group for Early Childhood Development

Chair: UNESCO/BREDA, Dakar, Senegal

Ann-Therese Ndong-Jatta with Rokhaya Diawara, ECD Specialist
Secretariat: Save the Children, Kampala, Uganda
Pablo Stansbery, Coordinator with Bonita Birunga, Secretariat’s ECD Focal Point

Chair, Conference Programme Committee

Emily Vargas-Barón, Ph.D., Director, The RISE Institute, International Consultant, and member of
the Steering Committee of the ADEA ECD Working Group

Members of the Conference Programme Committee:

 Vanya Berrouet, Education Officer, UNICEF/WCARO Regional Office
 Linda Biersteker, Ph.D., Head of Research, Early Learning Resource Unit, South Africa
 Sven Coppens, Regional Manager for West Africa, PLAN
 Cyril Dalais, Ph.D., Consultant and Former UNICEF Representative, Port Louis, Mauritius
 Rokhaya Diawara, ECD Specialist, UNESCO/BREDA, Dakar, Senegal
 Judith Evans, Ph.D., International Consultant, Victoria, Canada
 Babacar Fall, Ph.D., University of Dakar, West Africa
 Marito Garcia, Ph.D., Lead Economist and Africa ECD Coordinator, The World Bank,
Washington, DC
 Aster Haregot, Regional ECD Advisor, UNICEF
 Ann-Therese Ndong-Jatta, M.A., Director, UNESCO/BREDA, Dakar Senegal
 A. Bame Nsamenang, Ph.D., Director, Human Development Resource Centre, Bamenda,
and Assoc. Professor, Psychology & Learning Sciences, Yaounde University, Cameroon
 Margaret Okai, M.A., National Coordinator, ECD Unit, Ghana Education Service
 Michelle Neuman, Ph.D., ECD Specialist, The World Bank
 Alan Pence, Ph.D., Director, Early Childhood Development Virtual University, Victoria
Canada
 Eveline Pressoir, Ph.D., International Consultant, formerly Regional ECD Advisor,
UNICEF/WCARO
 Marie Louise Samuels, Director, ECD in Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa
 Pablo Stansbery, Ed.D., Senior Director, Early Childhood Development, Save the
Children/USA and Coordinator of the Secretariat ADEA ECD Working Group
 Louise Zimanyi, M.Ed., Director, Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and
Development, Toronto, Canada

Expected Conference Outputs

 Conference Concept Note has been prepared for the conference and for use in ECD
advocacy in African countries.

 Final Conference Programme and Agenda will be provided in the Conference Packet.

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Emily Vargas-Baron

 Guide to ECD Innovations in Africa: Strategies, Lessons Learned and Tools will be
prepared for inclusion in the Conference Packet.

 Global Early Childhood Progress Report: A Focus on Africa will be provided by the
Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development and The RISE Institute
and included in the Conference Packet.

 Conference Communiqué with Regional Action Steps will be provided as a draft for
discussion at the Roundtables and adopted at the Final Plenary. It will be disseminated
widely and included in the Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on ADEA
WG/ECD and ADEA’s websites.

 First Ladies’ Roundtable Report that will be prepared at the Conference, and included
in Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on WG/ECD and ADEA’s websites.

 Ministers’ Roundtable Report that will be prepared at the Conference and included in
Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on WG/ECD and ADEA’s websites.

 International Development Partners’ Roundtable Report that will be prepared at

Conference and included in Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on WG/ECD
and ADEA’s websites.

 Sub-Regional Roundtables’ Reports that will be prepared at Conference and included

in Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on WG/ECD and ADEA’s websites.

 First Ladies’ Statement that will be discussed and finalized at the First Ladies’
Colloquium and included in Final Conference Report, CD ROM and posted on WG/ECD
and ADEA’s websites.

 Conference Papers and PowerPoint Presentations given during the Conference will
be included in a CD ROM that will be provided the end of the Conference. Some papers
will be selected to be included in a book that will be produced soon after the Conference.

 Certificates of Participation will be provided for Conference Delegates who submit their
Conference evaluation forms on 12 November.

 Draft Press Releases will be made available before, during and after the Conference.

 Final Conference Report will be circulated by 31 December 2009.

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References

Accra Communiqué. (2005). ADEA ECD Working Group.

Amani ECCD. (2003). “Break the Cycle of Poverty: Invest in Early Childhood Development.” Dar
es Salaam: Amani ECCD.
Asmara Declaration on ECD. (2002). ADEA ECD Working Group.
Brandon, Richard. (2008). “Policy and Finance Simulations for Designing Access to High-Quality
ECD Experiences: Lessons Learned from Applications in the U.S,” in Funding the Future:
Strategies for Early Childhood Investing, Costing and Financing, Coordinator’s Notebook, Issue
30. Toronto, Canada: CG ECCD.
Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. (2008). Funding the Future:
Strategies for Early Childhood Investing, Costing and Financing, Coordinator’s Notebook, Issue
30. Toronto, Canada: CG ECCD.
Evans, Judith and Kathy Bartlett. (2008). The Madrasa Early Childhood Programme: 25 Years of
Experience. Geneva, Switzerland: The Aga Khan Development Network.
Fiszbein, Ariel and Norbert Schady. (2009). Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and
Future Poverty. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Garcia, Marito, Alan Pence and Judith L. Evans, editors. (2008). Africa’s Future, Africa’s
Challenge: Early Childhood Care and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: The
World Bank.
Göksel, Ayla (Fall 2008). “Review of a Cost Benefit Analysis of Preschool Education in Turkey.” To
be published in the Coordinators’ Notebook of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care
and Development.
Grantham-McGregor, Sally, Yin Bun Cheung, Santiago Cueto, Paul Glewwe, Linda Richter,
Barbara Strupp, and the International Child Development Steering Group. Developmental
potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. The Lancet, Vol. 369, January 6,
2007. Retrieved on May 12, 2009, from http://www.thelancet.com.
Heckman, James J. (2007). The Technology of Skill Formation.” Speech prepared for the
Consultative Group Annual Meeting, Santiago Chile, October 2007.
Heckman, James J. and Dimitriy V. Masterov. (August 2006). The Productivity Argument for
Investing in Young Children. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Early Childhood Research Collaborative.
Hyde, Karin A. L. editor. (2008). What We Know About Effective Early Childhood Development
Programs in Africa. Paris, France: Association for the Development of Education in Africa.
Hyde, Karin A. L. (2006). Investing in Early Childhood Development: The Potential Benefits and
Costs Savings. Paris, France: Association for the Development of Education in Africa.
Jaramillo, Adriana and Alain Mingat. (March 2006). “Facing the Challenge of Defining Early
Childhood Development Models that Can Be Scaled Up.” Libreville, Gabon: Association for the
Development of Education in Africa.
Kilburn, M. Rebecca and Lynn A. Karoly. (2008). The Economics of Early Childhood Policy: What
the Dismal Science Has to Say about Investing in Children. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
Moran, Ricardo, editor with Amartya K. Sen and Gro Harlem Brundtland. (2004). Escaping the
Poverty Trap: Investing in Children in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American
Development Bank.
Pence, Alan. (2008). “Background to and Planning Paper for African International Conferences on
ECD, based on the rationales for and experiences of 1999 – Kampala, Uganda, 2002 – Asmara,
Eritrea, 2005 – Accra, Ghana.” Victoria, British Colombia: Early Childhood Development Virtual
University.

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Rolnick, Arthur and Rob Grunewald. (2006). “A Proposal for Achieving High Returns on Early
Childhood Development.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Shonkoff, Jack and Deborah Phillips. (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: the Science of
Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID. (2004) Children on the Brink 2004: A Joint Report of New Orphan
Estimates and a Framework for Action. New York: UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID.
UNICEF. (2008). State of the World’s Children. New York: UNICEF.
UNESCO. (2006). 2007 Global Monitoring Report for Education for All, Strong Foundations: Early
Childhood Care and Education. Paris, France: UNESCO.
Vargas-Barón, E. 2005. Planning Policies for Early Childhood Development: Guidelines for
Action. Paris, France: ADEA, UNICEF and UNESCO.
Vargas-Barón, Emily. (2009). Going to Scale: Early Childhood Development in Latin America.
Washington, DC: The RISE Institute.
Verdisco, Aimee. (Fall, 2008). “Solving Latin America’s Most Urgent Problems: ECD and the
Consulta de San José.” Coordinators’ Notebook of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood
Care and Development. Toronto, Canada: Consultative Group on ECCD. For more information on
the Consulta de San José, including all papers, see:
http://www.iadb.org/res/consultaSanJose/index.cfm
Wolfensohn Center for Development. (May 2009). Studies presented at the meeting: Scaling up
Early Child Development. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. (Studies to be published
during 2009 – 2010.)
World Bank. (2009). Press Release.

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