TRAINING: Eastern Africa Regional Early Childhood Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

February 26, 2024 | 3:49 pm

Overview

Enhancing investments in early childhood is critical as these years form the foundation for building human capital along the life course. In this regard, the African Early Childhood Network (AfECN), in partnership with the Government of Tanzania, the Tanzania Early Childhood Development Network (TECDEN) and other partners will be convening the Eastern Africa Regional Early Childhood Conference to provide a platform for taking stock of the status of early childhood in the region and sharing knowledge and learning on how to take innovative models of quality early childhood interventions to scale. The conference is expected to bring together a diverse group of early childhood actors, including policy makers, researchers, CSOs, academia, funders, early childhood practitioners, and government ministries, departments, agencies to discuss and make concrete deliberations on early investment trajectory in Eastern Africa.

Objectives

The conference provides an opportunity to:

1. Take stock of the status of early childhood in the EAC region.
2. Foster dialogue that promotes knowledge and experiences sharing and enriches the early childhood advocacy agenda and learning for improved quality early childhood services.
3. Build consensus around key advocacy issues.
4. Showcase innovative programmes in the EAC region including those on ECD measurement.
5. Strengthen policy and programme implementation, build partnerships, and establish pathways for collaborations and networking.

Sub-themes

The conference sub-themes include but are not limited to:

• Empowering parents, caregivers, and communities.
• Systems strengthening with a spotlight on workforce development.
• Monitoring progress focusing on data/evidence generation, dissemination and utilization.
• Financing at both micro and macro-levels.
• Leadership and Governance.
• Scaling up and Innovating.

Participants

Conference participants will comprise government officials, national ECD networks, development partners, civil society organisations, academia, global ECD experts, ECD practitioners and programme planners from eight countries in Eastern and horn of Africa region and AU Regional Economic Communities.

Format

This will be an in-person conference to maximise on conference attendance and participation by stakeholders from across the region and beyond. It will also provide an opportunity for networking and learning among participants and offer grassroot organizations a chance to showcase their work in the exhibition booths available at the conference venue. The conference will be organized in different sessions to provide participants with diverse sub-themes in areas that may interest them.

The conference sessions will be organised as follows:

• Plenary sessions where keynote presentations will be made along with panel sessions that spotlight country experiences.
• Oral paper presentations in thematic break-out parallel sessions.
• Round table discussions for smaller groups that allow for in-depth engagement.
• Learning sessions and side events to support capacity building and joint planning for various interest groups. This will enable groups to engage, network and build pathways for collaboration and partnerships that would take Early Childhood forward in the region.
• Exhibition of partner initiatives and sharing of materials and resources.