Our Vision

An Africa where all children are learning, safe, healthy, happy and are achieving their full potential.

Our Mission

To serve as a platform for collaboration in protecting children’s rights through influencing ECED policies, programmes, and practices.

Our Core Values

Accountability – A dedication to integrity
focus – A single mindedness on improving child outcomes
Excellence – a commitment to quality
Creativity – an obligation to continuously searching for new solutions
Nurturing– An unwavering commitment to strengthening collaboration

What is ECD?

Early Childhood Development, or ECD, is a holistic set of multi-sectoral services and programmes that support a child's development from prenatal to age eight. These include:

• nurturing care;

• healthcare;

• clean water and sanitation;

• nutrition;

• play and early learning;

• and child protection

What We Do

AfECN works to increase access to quality ECD services through five Core Programme Areas:

1. Regional Advocacy
2. National Networking
3. Implementation Research
4. Quality Improvement

How We Work

The Africa Early Childhood Network brings together national and regional civil society organizations and networks, academia, entrepreneurs, and the private sector, in a collaborative effort towards improving outcomes and creating increased access to quality ECD services for all children in sub-Saharan Africa. The network works to build and support communities of practice in key areas such as advocacy, research, leadership, and information exchange.

Prof. Mary Getui
Board Chair

Professor Mary Getui, is an accomplished academic and esteemed leader serving as the Chairlady of the Board for the African Early Childhood Network. With her wealth of experience, expertise, and unwavering dedication to early childhood development, Professor Getui is a driving force behind the network's mission to transform the lives of young children across the African continent.

With a profound background in philosophy and theology, Professor Getui brings a unique perspective to the field of early childhood education. Her deep understanding of ethics and African philosophy allows her to approach the subject with cultural sensitivity, ensuring that the network's initiatives cater to the diverse needs of children throughout Africa. Through her guidance and insight, Professor Getui is instrumental in shaping strategies that promote holistic and inclusive early childhood development.

Professor Getui's significant contributions extend beyond academia. She has played a pivotal role in curriculum development and educational policy formulation, harnessing her expertise to advocate for impactful change. Her exceptional ability to assess policy impact and prioritize the well-being of young children empowers the network to implement evidence-based strategies that positively impact the lives of countless children.

A staunch advocate for gender equality and women's empowerment, Professor Getui leads by example in creating an inclusive environment for all children. Understanding the critical role of early childhood development in breaking down societal barriers, she tirelessly works towards fostering gender-responsive approaches that provide equal opportunities to every child. Her unwavering commitment to this cause fuels her dedication to establishing a future where gender equality is the norm.

Professor Getui's influence transcends national borders. Through her international engagements, collaborations, and participation in global conferences, she represents the African Early Childhood Network on the global stage. Her extensive network of experts and her profound insights into early childhood development enable her to forge partnerships, secure funding, and raise awareness of the network's initiatives worldwide.

In her role as the Chairlady of the Board, Professor Mary Getui brings her vast knowledge, passion, and leadership to guide the African Early Childhood Network towards its vision of providing high-quality early childhood education across Africa. Her exceptional contributions continue to shape the future of early childhood development and create a lasting impact on the lives of children throughout the continent.

Lynette Okengo
Executive Director

Lynette Okengo, PhD serves as the Executive Director of the Africa Early Childhood Network. Dr. Okengo is an early childhood development expert whose professional experience spans policy and strategy development, program design and evaluation as well as advocacy and capacity building.

Prior to her work with AfECN, Dr. Okengo held positions as a Senior Technical Advisor and Consultant for the Open Society Foundations, the World Bank, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Regional Office, PATH and Save the Children, among others. A major focus of her work across the region has been the design of strategies to enhance the work of governments, parents and teachers in providing the best possible environment especially for poor and marginalized children. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, serving twice as a Salzburg Fellow, twice as the Africa Team Coordinator for the World Forum for Early Care and Education and a Senior Fellow - Early Childhood Development for Children's Investment Fund Foundation.

Dr. Okengo has over 12 years of experience teaching at the university level, and has authored and presented widely on early childhood development programming in the region. She holds a PhD in Early Childhood Studies from Kenyatta University.

Joan Lombardi
Emeritus Advisor

Joan Lombardi, Ph.D. is a Visiting Scholar, Graduate School of Education, Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, Georgetown University.

Over the past 50 years Joan has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader and policy advisor to national and international organizations and foundations and as a public servant. Joan has served as an advisor to a range of organizations including UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, and The World Bank Group, among others. She currently directs The Early Opportunities Initiative, focused on advancing the well-being of young children and families around the world through mentoring, writing, resource sharing and advisement to philanthropy. She serves on the Executive Leadership Council of the global Early Childhood Development Action Network and Chairs their Global Policy and Advocacy Advisory group and as Co-Chair of the Research Forum for Early Childhood in Emergencies, in collaboration with the Moving Minds Alliance

Joan served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood during the Obama Administration and the first Director of the Child Care Bureau during the Clinton Administration. She was the founding Chair of the Birth to Five Policy Alliance (now the Alliance for Early Success).  She is the author of Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support Families and Build Communities and co-editor of Beacon of Hope: The Promise of Early Head Start for America’s Youngest Children.

Prof. Kofi Marfo
Emeritus Advisor

Kofi Marfo, PhD is a professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Human Development at Aga Khan University where he is co-leader of an initiative to support child development research capacity-building in Africa and is a co-convener of the African Scholars in Child/Early Child Development Workshop series. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Child Development and serves in advisory roles for two private foundations with substantial investments in early childhood development.

Previously, Professor Marfo taught educational psychology for more than two decades at the University of South Florida, holding leadership positions such as Director of the Doctoral Program in Special Education, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program in School Restructuring. He has worked as a researcher and lecturer in a number of universities across the globe including University of Cape Coast, Ghana, the University of Alberta, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and Kent State University.

Professor Marfo has been published extensively in the areas of early childhood intervention, childhood disability, parent-child interaction, and early childhood development and has been has been cited across these disciplines in over 180 different journals worldwide. Professor Marfo holds a PhD in Education from the University of Alberta.

Prof. Linda Richter
Board Member

Professor Linda Richter PhD is a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) - National Research Foundation (NRF) Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council and an advisor to the World Health Organization in Geneva on early child development.

Previously, Prof. Richter served in a number of academic posts including as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Melbourne, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, and a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. From 2010-2012 she worked as Advisor on Vulnerable Children at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva.

Prof. Richter has conducted both basic and policy research in the fields of child, youth and family development as applied to health, education, welfare and social development, and has published more than 400 papers and chapters. In 2016, she chaired the Steering Committee for the production of the Lancet series on early child development: Advancing Early Child Development: From Science to Scale. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Aster Haregot
Board Member

Aster Haregot is currently an independent international  consultant: consulting assignments for international development Partners, working directly with government Ministries and policy makers, including providing advisory support on national ECD policy and strategic development.  Assignments also include supporting international development agencies in ECD capacity building and mentoring of staff.

Prior to that she was the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) advisor and the regional ECD advisor for UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya.  Ms Haregot is an Educator by profession and has worked for UNICEF from 1985 to 2011. Before being posted to Nairobi, she was in UNICEF HQ, New York and managed the multi country girls' education initiative known as the African Girls' Education Initiative (AGEI). Ms Haregot has advocated, documented best practices, coordinated and initiated capacity building programmes, advocated for the establishment of community based programmes, publications and initiated research studies in Early Childhood Development and Girls' Education in UNICEF and she has vast experience in ECD having been a pioneer of the Early Childhood programme in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. Prior to that she worked for the Head Start programme in the US and the Ministry of Education and Children’s’ Commission in Ethiopia.

Education

Master of Education,
Rutgers University, Rutgers, NJ

Bachelor of Arts, Sociology, Douglas College, Rutgers University, Rutgers, NJ

Special Trainings
Adult Education, Education Strategic Planning graduate courses , Columbia Teachers College, 1995

Education Policy Analysis: HIID, Harvard University, 1996

Board Member - Board of Trustees for Africa Early Childhood Network - AfECN.