Supporting Local Governments to Provide Services for Young Children and Their Families

The role of local government in ensuring access to quality early childhood care and education services is increasingly recognized.  During a thought-provoking session at ISSA Connects for Learning 2023, Dr. Mihaela Ionescu (Program Director at ISSA) introduced ‘Primokiz’, a phased methodology to support local governments in their efforts to improve the services they offer for young children. Political will, cross-sectoral collaboration or child-and family-centred view on the early childhood system were highlighted as key elements for the methodology to be effective.

Since 2012, the Primokiz approach has been implemented by local partners of Jacobs Foundation in hundreds of cities across Switzerland and Germany. Since 2019, it is also implemented by ISSA and ISSA Members in Romania, Slovenia, Hungary, and soon in Slovakia and Ukraine.

Insights on ‘How effective is the work with local governments in determining change and improving the local early childhood systems’ were shared in a panel discussion featuring Carmen Lica (of ISSA Member, Centrul Step by Step, Romania), Jerneja Jager (of ISSA Member, Step by Step Centre for Quality in Education, Slovenia), Eva Deak (of ISSA Member, Partners Hungary) and Simon Battisti (of Qendra Marrëdhënie, Albania), representing the Urban95 programme from the Bernard van Leer Foundation. The session continued with group talks about the opportunities and challenges when working with local governments.

Read more about the Primokiz approach | Download the Primokiz flyer

Are you an ISSA Member? You may access the recording of the full session and the presentation slides. Please write to eizsak@issa.nl if you work for an ISSA member organization and are unable to access the session materials via the event page.

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