I haven't received a response from my international contacts, so therefore, I explored the "Global Children's Initiative " website to see what issues was related to this week's assignment: Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families.
The Center on the Developing Child has launched the Blobal Children's Initiative as an effort to connect internationally with others as an appoach to child survival, health, and development in the earliest years of life. The Center's commitment is to meet the needs of all children and use a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations fromthe poorest to the most affluent (Center on the Developing Child, 2011).
One of the latest approaches discussed on the website was a 2010 World Conference in Moscow titled, "Global Gathering on Moscow Put Spotlight on Early Childhood Issues." The Center Director Jack Shonkoff delivered a keynote address to put early childhood care and education (ECCE) front and center as a human development policy imperative.
In an effort for excellence and equity of care and education for children and families, in 2000, the world's governments established a set of goals- such as ending extreme poverty and hunger, to ensure that every child worldwide completes at least a primary education, and to reduce child mortality by two-thirds- to be achieved by 2015. These goals are known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
At the conference, Dr. Shonkoff described what brain science says about child development, how healthy cognitive development and the unhealthy effects of early-life adversity have ramifications both for the long-term health of the individual and for society, and what the implications are for policymakers.
I would like to share with you a statement in the article that really enlightened me about early childhood care and education by Dr. Mmantsetsa Marope, the director of the Division of Basic Education at UNESCO.
"ECCE is an unshakeable foundation for the development of the human capital required for higher value-added productivity, sustainable growth, competitiveness... and utlimately more equitable and politically stable societies."
References:
Center on the Developing Child-Harvard University-Global Children's Initiative. (2011). Global Gathering in Moscow Put Spotlight on Early Childhood Issues. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/
Carol,
ReplyDeleteYour posting is a great reminder to us that children need a healthy start from the beginning. The early cognitive development is so crucial for future learning.
I also found it interesting to learn a little about the Millennium Development Goals. This is something I had not heard of before but am interested in reading more about.
Carol,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information I was not familiar with the Blobal Children's Initiative. It's great to know that people not from the United States but all over are working to better the education for early childhood.
I also was not familiar with the Global Children's initiative. I appreciate their attempt to connect internationally with others as an appoach to child survival, health, and development in the earliest years of life.
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