Call for papers -- to be submitted by March 8, 2024, 12pm Singapore time. Download the concept note.
 
Join ARNEC and the ECCE Council of Malaysia in the first face-to-face Asia-Pacific Regional ECD Conference after the pandemic, and discuss how ECD is 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) aims 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 will gather for a focused interaction between and among presenters and participants and to exchange ideas, share diverse experiences and insights and commit 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.
 
Interact with and learn from policy makers in the region, global experts, thought leaders and practitioners including the keynote speaker, Joan Lombardi, to discuss ECD programs and practices that need scale, policy support and appropriate financing and 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 has 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.
 

Speakers

• Keynote: Joan Lombardi, Director, Early Opportunities and Visiting Scholar, Stanford Center on Early Childhood