CG's NEW Advocacy Messages

4 Cornerstones for Global ACTION!

• Start at the Beginning
• Get Ready for Success
• Improve Primary School Quality
• Include Early Childhood in Policies

"First Steps" Video Series, highlights the 4 Cornerstones in three countries, Brazil, Uganda and Moldova (Aired on BBC, World News July 2008.)

New Resources

• Young Children and Families Impacted by Conflict: learn more about the activities of the ECCD in Emergencies Working Group

• Coordinators' Notebook:
  Funding the Future:
  Strategies for Early Childhood Investment, Costing and Financing

Key Events

• World Forum on Early Care and Education: June 16-19, Belfast, N. Ireland
• CGECCD 25th Anniversary Annual Consultation: October 4-7,09, Antigua, WI
• ISSA 10th anniversary conference and roundtable: October 10-13, 09, Bucharest
• Latin America Network Regional Meeting: November 2-6, 09, Calle, Colombia
• Arab Resource Collective:  Inclusive Education and Diversity in Early Years Conference: November 5-7, 09, Beirut, Lebanon
• ADEA, Working Group on ECD: 4th African Int'l Conference on ECD - From Policy to Action: November 10-13, 09: Dakar, Senegal
• UN Climate Change Conference: December 7-18, 09: Copenhagen, Denmark

News:

• Global Campaign for Education's "Education on The Brink" report looks at the likely impact of the global recession on education and shows that without significant changes to the IMF architecture and removal of conditionalities, the poorest nations will remain unable to lift themselves out of recession.
  
  
• The State of the World's Children 2009 examines critical issues in maternal and newborn health, underscoring the need to establish a comprehensive continuum of care for mothers, newborns and children.
  
  
• US Economic Recovery Package includes significant funds targeted for young children
  
  
• The Child Care Transition – a new UNICEF Report Card on Early Childhood Education and Care in Economically Advanced Countries
  
  
• 2009 EFA Monitoring Report:
  
  The Report Highlights Progress on Goal 1 - Early Childhood:

  • Child malnutrition is a global epidemic that affects one in three children under the age of 5 and undermines their ability to learn. Slow progress in tackling child malnutrition and ill health – especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – is undermining progress towards universal primary education.
  • Progress indicators for the well-being of children in their pre-school years are a source for concern.
    The development targets set in the Millennium Development Goals for child mortality and nutrition will be missed by wide margins if current trends continue.
  • Major global disparities in provision continue to divide the world’s richest and poorest children. In 2006, pre-primary gross enrolment ratios averaged 79% in developed countries and 36% in developing countries, falling as low as 14% in sub-Saharan Africa. Global disparities are mirrored in wide gaps within countries, especially between the richest and poorest children. In some countries, children from the wealthiest 20% of households are five times more likely to attend pre-school programmes than those from the poorest 20%. .. Read full Report >>