In Madagascar on 11 December 2020, a half-day advocacy meeting was held with Ministers, representatives from the National Office of Nutrition and the Prime Minister’s office, funders and partners. The aim was to sensitize the high level stakeholders and obtain their commitment and support to finalize the multisectoral ECD strategy.

ECDAN, UNICEF, the Aga Khan Foundation and the LEGO Foundation hosted this webinar on 9 December 2020 to discuss nurturing care for children with development delays and disabilities.

This three-part webinar series from AfECN looked at Playful Parenting. Each webinar was translated into English, Portuguese and French.

The first part of this webinar focused on nurturing care and the second part focused on non-communicable diseases in children and adolescents living with HIV.

In Madagascar a 3-day workshop was organized for technical staff from relevant ministries and partners. The aim was to foster a common understanding of ECD across sectors and advance finalization of a national multisectoral ECD strategy.

On 24 November 2020, a half day workshop was organized for 35 media professionals followed by an opportunity for 10 journalists to visit ECD-related sites and generate stories from the field visits. The media also participated in the high-level advocacy meeting and technical workshop. The aim was to provide the media with key information regarding ECD and motivate them to use their platforms to elevate attention to ECD.

This event celebrated the launch of the 2020 Country Profiles for Early Childhood Development. A panel of experts and country representatives discussed the current state of knowledge on ECD and rallied partners around investing in strengthening the availability, quality and strategic use of data on ECD to support country and cross-country action and monitoring.

The International Step-by-Step Association (ISSA), with financial support from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, is hosting a webinar: “Father Engagement Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges, Promising Approaches and Opportunities”.

This webinar is hosted by the Kenya Paediatric Association and features speakers from the Ministry of Health, Kenya Paediatric Association, Aga Khan University, World Health Organisation and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

ISSA’s 2020 conference will have a particular focus on equity in early childhood.