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Annual Consultation
The CG’s Annual Consultations are a vital meeting point for knowledge generation, advocacy work as well as strengthening partnerships and building new alliances. Where possible, the CG’s Annual Consultation is held in a region to highlight regional experiences, facilitate and promote regional participation, provide opportunities for input from key regional and national EC actors in that region and to work collectively on regional priorities.
The format of the Anual Consultation includes:
a) Thematic Focus: Designed around a theme that is agreed to be a current priority in the field of international Early Childhood, CG Partners, the Secretariat, the Executive Board and invited individuals and organizations working on the agreed theme come together to review, reflect upon, debate and (eventually) synthesise current practices, gaps, and issues on the selected topic. Thematic discussion papers and/or background materials are prepared and shared at the meeting. Out of the discussions and review of what is happening (or not) on the ground, specific publications are prepared – most commonly the Coordinators’ Notebook, the CG’s annual publication.
b) Convening and Reporting of Working Groups: The Annual Consultation also represents an important opportunity for Working Groups to convene, share their progress, challenge the collective thinking, and to agree on forward plans.
c) Updates and Discussion on the work of Partners: including key trends, progress, challenges and emerging issues in the regions
d) Annual Business Meeting: In addition, the Annual Consultation also enables CG partners, the Executive Board and Secretariat the opportunity to organize an annual Business Meeting for partners to review and approve work plans and budgets, identify upcoming global events/publications for the coming year and prioritize those where CG leadership and/or participation is critical
The annual consultations are by invitation only.
2012 Annual Consultation
November 14-16, 2012, Paris, hosted by UNESCO
Theme: Regional Consultation; Positioning ECD in a Post-2015 Development Framework
2011 Annual Consultation
November 5-7, Singapore, hosted by ARNEC and the government of Singapore
Theme: 0-3s, CG strategic framework and plan, Partner Updates etc
2010 Annual Consultation
November 30-December 2, Zanzibar, East Africa, hosted by MOE of Zanzibar and the ADEA Working Group on ECD
Theme: The CG @2015: Strategically Positioning ECCD as a Global Priority; New dynamics and opportunities for ECCD in Africa
2009 Annual Consultation
October 4 - 7, Antigua, West Indies, hosted by the Ministry of Education of Antigua and Barbuda and supported by UNICEF
Theme: Developing in a Changing World: The CG's 25th Anniversary
In light of the CG's 25th anniversary, the focus of the Annual Consultation was to look retrospectively and prospectively at the CG's evolving role given changing global, regional, national, and local contexts related to the economic crisis, rising food prices and food insecurity, climate change, violent conflict, continued population growth, migration, the loss of cultural and linguistic diversit), etc. and the serious impact this has on the ability of families, communities, and nations to provide adequate care and development services for young children.
In addition, despite the increasingly clear rationale for ECCD, its further development as a field and growing importance in the development process, the CG agreed on the ongoing if not urgent need to prioritise actions that ensure children’s rights are defended and nations become more accountable regarding ECCD services for vulnerable children. National and regional as well as global advocacy for ECCD will be necessary to ensure:
* Increased investment in ECCD with a focus on priority target groups
* Improved programming and expansion of ECCD services through the development of comprehensive ECCD policy planning, advocacy and implementation.
Results from the CG's 25th anniversary survey, ’Moving ECCD from unfunded priority to attained right’ revealed that, the CG in its role, should continue to: diversify in terms of regional and sectoral representation (i.e. health, protection), conduct advocacy within international arenas to ensure ECCD has a strategic place on the global development agenda, provide ongoing support to regional capacity development, intensify ability to bring research to the fore, pay attention to and weigh in on programmatic developments and to continue to evolve - bringing new actors into the CG while being able to maintain the flexibility that has allowed the CG to be responsive to issues, ideas and opportunities as they emerge.
The Annual Consultation also presented an important opportunity to: collaboratively review and agree upon a working definition of ECCD and ECCD principles; further develop the 4 Cornerstones framework in order to continue to raise public awareness of the importance of ECCD, monitor policy through the development of an international progress report and national profiles, identify new champions and partnerships and support capacity building and network development; review progress on the CG Working Groups including Emergencies, HIV/AIDS and Climate Change and convene a new working group on identifying ECCD research priorities.
Past Annual Consultations
2008 - Young Children in Emergencies, hosted by the International Step by Step Association, Budapest
2007 - The Impact of Climate Change on Young Children and Implications for Policy/Programming, hosted by UNICEF, Santiago, Chile
2006 - A Global Call to Action: The 2007 Global Monitoring Report on Early Childhood, 2007 Lancet Series on ECD, WHO Report on the Social Determinants of Health, hosted by UNICEF New York, New York
2005 - Costing and Financing of ECCD/Consultation with Global Monitoring Report team, hosted by UNESCO, Paris
2004 - Advocacy/The Impact of ECCD Programmes on Later Learning and Development Outcomes, hosted by ACEV, Istanbul
2003 - HIV/AIDS and Young Children, hosted by PAHO, Washington
2002 - Indicators/Capacity Building in ECCD, hosted by UNICEF, Amman, Jordan
2001 - The UN Special Session on Children/The Effectiveness Initiative, hosted by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, The Hague, Netherlands
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