NEWS: The role of partnerships in promoting early childhood development 

December 14, 2022 | 1:04 pm

Group phot with some of the participants of the Early Childhood Development webinar hosted by the Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development, UN SDG Partnerships Platform and the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) ©Aga Khan University Photo/Maureen Ooko
By​ Dr Anil Khamis, Resea​rch Faculty, Aga Khan University

2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the Aga Khan Foundation – supported Madrassah Early Childhood Programme (MECP). On the other hand, the Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) engagement in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) arena in East Africa spans back at least a century, with well-baby clinics and educational facilities for the community that then spread across the region.

In the early 1960s, His Highness the Aga Khan supported the development of day-care centres, particularly in India, that are still in existence. In the late 1970s, the School of Nursing (and Midwifery) was founded to uplift the status of women in a conservative society of Pakistan, provide professional career paths, and bridge the fields of maternal and child health. In the 1980s, MECP was founded in Kenya with an explicit focus on developing knowledge to improve child development and learning outcomes, training local teachers, and curriculum development sensitive to the culture and tradition of the target communities.

Fast forward to the 2000s, the Centre for Excellence in Women and Child Health and the Institute for Human Development were founded at the Aga Khan University. These entities aspire to make a national-level, at-scale impact to translate knowledge into good practice for improved child survival and developmental outcomes of the most marginalised and disadvantaged communities in the geographies where AKDN operates.

In line with the vision mentioned above, the Institute for Human Development (IHD) is engaging stakeholders in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands to improve early childhood development outcomes among marginalised communities in the region. Leveraging the strength of partnerships, IHD is working with the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Partnership Platform.

With the FCDC’s political and governing resources, the United Nation’s potential to raise material resources, and the Institute for Human Development’s institutional expertise, our potential to scale up ECD is immense.

Funded by the Hilton Foundation, IHD’s foundational research work has led to the generation of significant knowledge products accessible to stakeholders via the ECD Workforce Hub. This knowledge can serve the information needs of ECD stakeholders keen to promote ECD in their communities.

Stakeholder dialogues with partners in the ECD sector and those on the ground are crucial to avoid duplicating efforts. These stakeholders include the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Civil Society Organisations, Community Based Organisations, and local ASAL bodies such as women and youth groups.

With this approach, it becomes possible to achieve ECD investment based on evidence and information on the actual development of children in the region; capacity-building services; curated knowledge on best practices; and policy implementation support.




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