ADEA attends GPE workshop on preschool education in challenging environments

A workshop on preschool education organized by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), in collaboration with the German cooperation agency (GIZ/BMZ) and UNICEF, was held in Zanzibar, Tanzania, November 24 - 27, 2014.

Participants from 11 countries in the sub-region as well as other organizations and private foundations took part in the workshop.

The workshop was an opportunity for countries to define and plan the scaling up of high-quality national preschool education programs so that they also reach children living in challenging environments. The objective is to reach the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly those living in emergency or post-conflict situations.

The workshop concluded with a call for action to:

• Broaden access for both girls and boys to quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) with at least one year of free, compulsory preschool education, with an emphasis on access of marginalized children;
• Increase international and national investment in ECCE;
• Promote innovative partnerships that encourage investment in ECCE by public and private partners;
• Build up the knowledge base on effective, quality ECCE programs and develop indicators that will help countries evaluate children’s ability to learn, as well as the quality of learning environments;
• Ensure that ECCE is included in the post-2015 development agenda and in the strategic plans of the GPE.

The workshop received support from the following organizations: the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of Zanzibar, the Ministry of Education of Tanzania, the World Bank, the World Organization for Preschool Education and UNESCO, lead agency of ADEA’s Working Group on Early Childhood Development (WGECD).

For further information, contact Rokhaya Diawara, Coordinator, Working Group on Early Childhood Development (WGECD), r.diawara@unesco.org