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ECD & Child Rights
The Connection between ECD Programs and Child Rights
ECD programs at their best are essentially an integrated set of actions for ensuring young children’s rights to grow up healthy, well-nourished, protected from harm, with a sense of identity and self-worth and opportunities for learning. Like the CRC they are uniquely concerned with the whole child. ECD programs had previously been “pigeon-holed” in many organizations as being a “piece” of education. While ECD is indeed about opportunities for learning it is also about the much broader scope of children’s rights.
Within the child rights framework, ECD programs are called upon therefore to occupy the very position which the best of them have assumed as a responsibility for many years. With the impetus of the Child Rights Convention (CRC) this broader interpretation of the role of ECD is increasingly being taken on board by agencies and governments. As well as ensuring that we think in terms of the whole child, rather than getting stuck in “sectors” the rights framework has necessitated attention to the different levels which effect children’s well-being – family, community, local infrastructure and policy.
The following links will provide you with useful information on Child Rights:
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