ECD Advocacy Strategy

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ECD Advocacy Strategy
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Join the Global Early Childhood ADVOCACY Campaign!
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Cornerstones to Secure a Strong Foundation for
Young Children
1. Start at the Beginning Integrate child
development, early stimulation and parenting
information into prenatal, early health, and
education services.
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Cornerstones to Secure a Strong Foundation for
Young Children
2. Get Ready for Success Ensure access to at
least two years of quality early childhood care
and development services prior to formal school
entry, beginning with the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged children.
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Cornerstones to Secure a Strong Foundation for
Young Children
3. Improve Primary School Quality Increase
investments and improve quality in Grades 1 - 3
of primary schooling by providing teachers with
knowledge and training in early childhood care
and development, adequate learning materials for
children and smaller classes.
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Cornerstones to Secure a Strong Foundation for
Young Children
4. Include Early Childhood in Policies Address
early childhood in all national policies and
plans across sectors, including Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSP) and Fast Track Initiative
(FTI), and ensure adequate resources and
multi-sectoral co-ordination.
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AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
ANC 52ND NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2007 - RESOLUTIONS
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• CHILDREN
• Recommend,
• The best interest of the child should be
  paramount, with child-headed households as
  priority for protection and care.
• To prioritise the welfare of children and in this
  regard develop, monitor and measure tools that
  define and deal with child poverty
• Strengthen the current safety nets that deal with
  child poverty, ongoing murders, disappearances,
  abuse and neglect.
• Strengthen childhood development centres and urge
  communities to understand and deal seriously with
  the rights of children.
• Develop a comprehensive strategy on Early
  Childhood Development.
• This conference sends a special message of
  condolences to all the families that have missing
  children and of those that were killed by adults
  who are meant to protect them. The ANC abhors the
  circumstances under which these children died and
  commits to continue seeking justice to bring the
  perpetrators to book.

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Sate of the Nation Address Apex
Priorities Business Unusual

• Project 11 Ratchet up implementation of ECD
  programme
• Description
• Massively speed up implementation of the ECD
  programme
• expand the number of trained staff and
• double the number of sites and child
  beneficiaries by the end of 2009

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Apex Priorities Business Unusual
Organisational Implications Department of Social
Development, working with the departments of
Education and Health to supervise and monitor
implementation Cluster Responsibility Social
Cluster
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What is this ECD programme?
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National Integrated Plan for ECD in South Africa
Key aim . . . to bring greater synergy and
coordination to current government programmes . .
. in . . . ECD (page 4)
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• Mechanisims for advancing ECD (page 15)
• Inter-sectoral collaborative planning and
  service delivery
• Agreement on target of the plan
• Creating inter-organisational activities
• Ensuring national and provincial budget
  commitment
• Co-ordination and monitoring
• Development of ECD management systems

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• Results (page 16)
• Ability to expand service delivery
• Cost cutting through shared resources
• More efficient and speedy delivery of services

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• Ultimately ECD should ensure that (page 18)
• All practitioners
• are supported as professionals with a career
  ladder
• ongoing professional development
• compensation to attract and retain

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• Ultimately ECD should ensure that (page 18)
• All families
• are recognised as the first and main providers
• have access to ECD programmes that are
  affordable and of high quality
• participate

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• Ultimately ECD should ensure that (page 18)
• All communities
• are accountable for the quality of ECD
• are backed by local, provincial and national
  funding

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• Primary Components (page 20)
• Integrated Management of Childhood Illness
• Immunisation
• Nutrition
• Referral for health services and for social
  grants
• Early learning stimulation
• Development and implementation of psychosocial
  programmes

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• Secondary Components (page 21)
• Human Resource Development
• parents, care givers and CDWs
• Infrastructure development
• building, upgrading and renovation of formal and
  informal centres and the provision of water and
  sanitation
• Research
• inform and ascertain the effects of the proposed
  services on child development
• Monitoring and evaluation
• continuous

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• Institutional arrangements (page 22)
• Political
• Core Group of Ministers Health, Education,
  Social Development, and the Minister in the
  Office of the President
• Focal point Social Cluster strategic and
  budget planning across departments
• Similar arrangements at a provincial level

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• Institutional arrangements (page 22)
• Operational
• National and provincial line functions (guided
  by co-operative governance) responsible for
  delivery
• Coordinated planning and delivery
• However, each line department will only be
  responsible for the budgeting and delivery of
  components that fall within its core functions

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• Section 3 Roles and Responsibilities
• NGOs and Partnerships
• NGOs have a major role to play as partners
• They will be
• Included in the various structures
• Consulted on development and implementation
• Co-opted to participate in the delivery process
• The integrated approach is strengthened through
  a variety of partnerships

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• Conclusion
• The environment for ECD is not perfect, but a
  lot of important elements are in place

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Get young children on every agenda. Advocate!