Emphasizing the Role of the Early Years

Emphasizing the Role of the Early Years – Working Together with Parents and Communities

Meeting of the Parenting Education and Community Based ECD Program, Belgrade, 3-5 December 2007

December 2007

Placing a high priority on efforts to strengthen the quality and accessibility of early childhood development and education programs, ISSA and the Open Society Institute (OSI) hosted a meeting for ISSA member countries involved in the Parenting Education and Community Based ECD Program. This program supports activities targeted at implementing a wide variety of early childhood education and development programs outside the formal preschool structure and within the contexts of existing national health and education systems. Although encompassing all children, the primary focus is on at-risk groups and disadvantaged children and their families.

The December meeting was an opportunity to learn from the latest research data as well as experiences presented by international organizations such as UNICEF, Save the Children, Christian Children’s Fund, Aga Khan Foundation, and strong national organizations active in different regions of the world, such as Comenius Foundation for Child Development (Poland), Mother Child Education Foundation (Turkey), and Lisbon School of Education (Portugal).

Questions addressed during the meeting included discussions about government involvement in NGO activities and community based ECD programs, quality control – challenges connected with scaling up programs, and reaching the unreached – ECD initiatives attempting to reach children in severely disadvantaged circumstances.

ISSA is grateful for the presenters at the meeting who included Deepa Grover, UNICEF, Teresa Vasconcelos, Lisbon School of Education, Teresa Ogrodzinska, Comenius Foundation for Child Development, Mary Moran, Christian Children’s Fund, Deniz Senocak, ACEV, and others. ISSA members shared their experiences and discussed strategy for the coming year, as well as how to expand access to and quality of ECD services through parent and community programs in their countries and the build capacity of the ISSA and its members to play significant role in the field from 2009-2011. Participants concluded that children from marginalized groups will remain a focus for both ISSA and OSI in the future.

For more information contact Aija Tuna, ISSA Program Director at atuna@issa.hu.