ARNEC and the ECCE Council of Malaysia hosted this, the first face-to-face Asia-Pacific Regional ECD Conference after the pandemic, and discussed ECD as an important building block to building overall resilience and reinforcing SDG targets, especially those for young children under Target 4.2.

The 2024 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Early Childhood Development (ECD) aimed to drive actions and equip policy makers and practitioners with the tools and approaches to address current challenges in early childhood. Through the theme of the conference, ‘Investing in ECD: An effective pathway for building resilience and boosting sustainable development’, various ECD stakeholders gathered for a focused interaction between and among presenters and participants and exchanged ideas, shared diverse experiences and insights, and committed to a stronger ECD movement in the region.

There is a compelling need to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of young children and their families and communities, in response to the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and other crises affecting young children, including the prolonged effects of COVID-19.

Participants interacted with and learned from policy makers in the region, global experts, thought leaders and practitioners including the keynote speaker, Joan Lombardi, and discussed ECD programs and practices that need scale, policy support and appropriate financing, as well as those that are high quality, distributed equitably and at the right time, and aligned with the principles of sustainable development to support the youngest children and their parents.

The Conference had the following sub-themes:
• Building resilient learners;
• Building resilient homes and families;
• Building resilient programs and services;
• Building resilient ECCD systems.

You can find out more on the conference website here. Download the concept note.

Speakers

• Joan Lombardi, Director, Early Opportunities and Visiting Scholar, Stanford Center on Early Childhood
• Datuk Dr. Chiam Heng Keng, Founding President, ECCE Council of Malaysia
• Frances Aboud, Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University
• Yoichi Sakakihara, Director of Child Research Net
• Bhavreen Khandhari, Co-Founder, Warrior Moms India
• Sri Hari Govind, Youth Advisor, Cities, Children and Climate Action Lab, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Relevant links

• Conference presentations (8 videos)
• Highlights from Day one and two (summary video)