Following the formation of the CANGO Basic Services Thematic Group, members began identifying possible areas of need and of interest to do joint work. Out of this workshop came the idea to implement an Early Childhood Care and Development program through consortium.
It has only been recently understood that access to proper food, healthcare and protection, all of which ECCD promotes, are not just needs but are also indivisible fundamental rights. Although Ethiopia ratified the Convention to the Rights of the Child in 1992, committing itself to ensure that all children have access to care and development related support without being discriminated against due to gender, language, religion, etc., little has been done to enforce and promote this.
ECCD encompasses all kinds of fundamental support necessary for the proper development of young children, as well as the support families and the greater community need to foster healthy child development. An ECCD project entails supporting the health, good nutrition and intellectual stimulation of a child’s development as well as providing social and emotional care a child needs to reach his human potential and play an active role in the family and the community at a later time.
The ECCD project is aimed at promoting the rights of children to reach their full development potential. Using water and sanitation as entry points into target communities, the ECCD program goes on to use community conversation as a means to empower the community for the protection of their children’s wellbeing. In this way, and supported by community facilitators, mothers as well as other household members would learn how to best care for their infant children (ages 0 to 2). Each community would then have access to ECCD facilities for children from 3 to 5 years of age.
The envisaged project is a process-driven, locally prioritized program rather than a blue-print package. Program inputs are phased into communities as a result of a participatory planning process to ensure ownership and strengthen sustainability. Implementation of the program will be through existing structures and on-going programs. The program will involve collaboration between government and non-governmental bodies (NGOs) and communities. As a multi-sectoral program involving health, nutrition, pre-primary education, child care, and income generation, the approach will involve linking various government departments and NGOs to provide comprehensive services towards the development of children.
The project strategy follows a participatory project management cycle, which actively involves partner NGOs, government organizations, and the communities in the target areas in almost every aspect in order to develop a real sense of ownership and sustain the results of the project. It supports the development and empowerment of the communities to run the program themselves even after the support from the project ceases.
Plan Ethiopia is the lead agency on this project while CCFC, HOPE International, and Right to Play are strong partners.