Act For Early Years

AfECN is a member of the High-Level Advisory Group of the Act For Early Years campaign. This is a global movement working to ensure that every child has access to quality early childhood development, essential to thrive and achieve lifelong well-being. The campaign brings together governments, civil society, donors, businesses and advocates to prioritise investment in the early years as one of the most effective ways to break cycles of poverty and inequality and to build a more equitable world. Act For Early Years is supported by a broad coalition of partners including Theirworld, UNICEF, UNESCO, LEGO Foundation, Dubai Cares, Brookings Institution, ECDAN and many others.

AfECN is actively contributing to enhancing the visibility and uptake of the Act For Early Years campaign across Africa. The network leverages existing regional platforms to integrate the campaign’s key messages into discussions at major events across various sectors. AfECN is also collaborating with key stakeholders to strengthen country-level engagement and to mobilise youth champions for greater advocacy and action in early childhood development.

Find out more and join the campaign at www.actforearlyyears.org.

Launch of Africa Country Profiles for ECD Countdown To 2030

The African Union, The African Early Childhood Network, UNICEF, Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), and World Health Organization (WHO) will launch the Africa ECD Country Profiles Countdown to 2030 during #CPHIA2025.

the Africa ECD Country Profiles Countdown to 2030

ECD AND CLIMATE CHANGE WEBINAR

Join AfECN and partners as we spotlight the intersection of climate change and early childhood development, sharing country findings, lessons, and advocacy entry points to strengthen action for Africa’s youngest.

Date: Wednesday, 24th September 2025

Time: 15:00

Duration: 1hr30Min

ONLINE TRAINING: A Tool For Costing Early Childhood Programmes

Join this informative webinar with Dr. Emily Gustafsson-Wright of the Brookings Institution to explore how the Childhood Cost Calculator (C3) can unlock more and better Early Childhood Care and Education financing by supporting implementers and policymakers to collect and analyse critically needed cost data

OPPORTUNITY: ACCELERATING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICAN REGION

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR ECD COORDINATOR

The ECD Advisor/ Coordinator supports AfECN’s programmatic work in strengthening multisectoral advocacy and sub-regional coordination mechanism in WCAR.  The broader tasks include i) supporting stronger engagement of regional and national ECD partners; contributing to improved organizational and advocacy capacities of National Advocacy Partners (NAPs); increased knowledge generation on Early Childhood Education and dissemination across the region. The ECD Advisor/Coordinator, based in WCAR, will work under the supervision of the Executive Director to provide technical and coordination support.

Kindly submit your applications to: careers@afecn.org with the subject “West African Coordinator”

The deadline for applications is 29th September 2025.

2025: Africa conference on childcare

The African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the African Early Childhood Network (AfECN) is  co- convening the Continental Childcare Conference , to be held in Addis Ababa 18th -20th June 2025, under the theme Building Partnerships for Accelerating Action towards Quality & Inclusive Childcare in Africa.

First meeting of Early Childhood Development (ECD) experts in the East African Community (EAC)

The EAC recognizes Early Childhood Development as a critical foundation for human capital development, economic growth, and social equity, aligning with Article 120(c) of the EAC Treaty and the EAC Child Policy (2016). Despite progress, many children under five in the region lack access to quality ECD services. This meeting aimed to consolidate regional efforts, address cross-cutting challenges, harmonize guidelines and validate strategic priorities towards a comprehensive Regional ECD Policy and Action plan, building global commitments like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4.2) and the Nurturing Care Framework.

ECSA-HC responsive caregiving experts’ committee meeting 2025 and learning visit in Zambia

Following a successful 2024 experts meeting held in the sidelines of the East Africa ECD Conference March 2024 in Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania. Among other activities it was proposed by members to consider having some cross-country learning as part of the activities of the experts’ committee. We identified Zambia to share lessons of their community based ECD program Insaka, based on the presentation done during the Health Ministers conference in June 2024 and was further presented at the virtual quarterly meeting in October 2024. Such best practices are aimed to improve outcomes for the region’s children by supporting the effort on the implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework, particularly the responsive caregiving component across the east, central and southern Africa region.

Blog: Tackling learning poverty in Africa: building collaborative partnerships to scale-up early learning assessments in west and central Africa region.

Author:  KIX Early Learning Assessment Project Coordination Team

Institution: Africa Early Childhood Network

Access to inclusive and equitable quality education is key to promoting better human capital outcomes, as it leads to accumulation of knowledge and skills needed for socio-economic development of a country. Indeed, when children access quality education measured by better learning outcomes, it builds their capacities in ways that not only contributes to their personal success but also leads to better social wellbeing and productivity. The need for quality education for all children is acknowledged in global and regional frameworks including Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and Africa Agenda 2063. For example, while SDG 4 recognizes the need to provide quality education for all with as special focus on most vulnerable populations, Agenda 2063[1] identifies provision of quality education focused on achieving 100% literacy and numeracy as a key driver to Africa’s prosperity. The agenda calls for universal access to quality early childhood, primary and secondary education, ensuring that no child is left behind, and that the potential of every child is nurtured (Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want).[2]

[1] A blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.

[2] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Agenda+2063

Launch of the compendium of African initiatives to support parents & caregivers of adolescents and young children.

The compendium of African initiatives to support parents and caregivers has a lot to offer for policy and decision-makers, as well as development partners, civil society organisations and implementing organisations.