The Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) and Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN) hosted this webinar series on “Accelerating Better Early Childhood Development (ECD) outcomes in Africa and Asia-Pacific regions through strengthened governance mechanisms”. The first webinar focused on the results of a mapping study on governance and coordination mechanisms for ECD in the Africa region, which was completed in December 2021 with more than 100 participants from both regions.

As custodian agency of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 4.2.1, UNICEF was tasked with leading the development of a new measure to track progress toward achieving the related target. Following five years of methodological work, the Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030) was launched in March 2020 as a new tool to measure developmental outcomes among young children and for SDG monitoring and reporting. This webinar took stock and reflected on implementation of the ECDI2030 over the previous two years.

Although global attention to early childhood development has been established through its inclusion in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 250 million children (43%) younger than 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries are at risk of not achieving their developmental potential due to poverty and nutritional deficit. This webinar was the first of a 3-part series from Medicus Mundi Schweiz.

This report drew on the experiences of over 8,500 women and 300 health professionals across eight countries to expose the aggressive marketing practices used by the formula milk industry, and highlighted the impact on families’ decisions about how to feed their babies and young children.

This webinar aimed to kickstart ARNEC, UNICEF EAPRO and Save the Children’s Asia-Pacific regional initiative around advocating for young children’s rights to clean, safe and sustainable environments, focused on climate change and environmental risks/challenges (indoor and outdoor pollution, a lack of clean and protective play and recreation spaces and exposure to environmental toxins such as lead and mercury).

The goal of this webinar was to disseminate findings from two studies recently conducted in Kenya and Mozambique, which examine the acceptability and feasibility, facilitators and barriers, as well as initial outcomes of integrating monitoring and counseling on child development into routine health services. 

The Countdown to 2030 national, equity and early childhood development profiles was launched on 14 December 2021. This webinar explained how the profiles can be used for programming and advocacy, and how they complement the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent Health profiles.

The 4th International Developmental Pediatrics Association (IDPA) Congress was held on December 2-5, 2021. IDPA and the Arab Network for Early Childhood Development (ANECD) hosted the event, bringing together clinicians, researchers, and policymakers working for child development and disabilities from around the world. The theme for 2021 is ‘Nurturing Children in Crisis’.

This event offered health policymakers, programme managers, emergency officers, MNCH programme implementers, health professionals, researchers, development and funding partners an opportunity to interact with Ministries of Health and implementers from 19 countries and to discuss strategies to strengthen health systems and enable them to respond rapidly and build back better.

This conference provided an opportunity to discuss ECD programs in Kenya, innovations and challenges, creating resolutions to establish a holistic/multi-sectoral approach for implementing the Nurturing Care Framework.