1. Conference Learning
Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Early
Childhood Development
“Early Experiences Matter: Policies and
Practices for Ensuring Holistic Development for
Very Young Children”
8-10 November 2011
Singapore
Brenda Lisenby
Chief Rapporteur
2. “…having so many topics to cover in a
short conference can be overwhelming
and difficult to digest…but it is a
reflection of the holistic nature of early
childhood development as all five topics
are interrelated and none can work in
isolation…”
Ms Anupama Rao Singh
Regional Director
UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office
3. Learning Strands
• Policy status and development
• Capacity building and professional development
• Programmes and services for very young children
and their families
• Community involvement and support for families
• Cross sectoral responsibility for promoting
holistic development
Plus the underlying theme of research to support
evidence based practice
4. Conference Objectives
• Provide a forum to widen and enrich regional
understanding of research
• Provide opportunities for participants to share
policy tools and experiences
• Facilitate debate on strengths, weaknesses,
threats, and opportunities for improved policy
and programming
• Promote networking, build stronger partnerships
• Create opportunities for professional
development and learning
5. Concurrent Sessions 1-1, 1-2
• traditional child rearing practices in
Bangladesh were examined in regards to
gender equity, parenting styles and impact on
children
• Father’s literacy level and involvement
resulted in better literacy; father’s
involvement increases as the child gets older;
and first child in the family gets better
stimulation (Pakistan)
6. Concurrent Sessions 1-3, 1-4
Focusing on Cambodia and the Philippines,these
two presentations gave examples of the
formation of national policies:
• The functionality of those policies at different
levels
• The gaps in implementation
• The reasons for inefficiency of the plans and
implementations
7. Concurrent Session 1-5
ARNEC 2011 Noteworthy Practices
• Healthy Start by Consuelo Fdn, Philippines
• Hands to Hearts International, India
• Mobile Creches, India
• Human Development Programme, Pakistan
• Community Based ECD, Thailand
• A New Day for Kids (ANDK), Cambodia
8. Concurrent Session 1-6
Workshop—review of training provided to
workers in poor resource communities to
identify special needs and provide
interventions (Delhi):
• Training module presented and discussed
• Role plays of caregiver and community worker
• Small group case study discussion
9. Concurrent Sessions 2-1, 2-2
• Building communities for change by using
Sesame Street programming (Mumbai)
• Piloting a programme in Pakistan for reaching
the under threes: Releasing Confidence and
Creativity
10. Concurrent Sessions 2-3, 2-4
Early childhood development and education,
home-based and center-based:
• Educarers can provide models of good
practice
• Learning is not fragmented and should not
negate cultural practices
• Ongoing research needed
• Policies and practices need to promote
multicultural awareness within the
community
11. Concurrent Sessions 2-5, 2-6
Two very different topics:
• Need of government policy to allocate
resources to very young children during
natural disaster or emergency situation
(proposal from Bangladesh)
• Issue of quality and relationship to
accreditation, and the need to base policy and
programmes on philosophy of child
development rather than learning or
schooling (Singapore)
12. Concurrent Session 2-7
East Asia-Pacific Scale Development
• Review of ELDS (Early Learning Dev’t Standards)
from various countries, selection of 100
indicators (from1738)
• Piloted in Fiji, Mongolia, and China
• Sample other countries, dev age-based norms
• Purpose of scale: not pedagogical ass’t or
programme evaluation, but for capturing child
dev’t across a population age group
13. Concurrent Sessions 3-1, 3-2
Examined parent education and support
programmes in Bangladesh and Shanghai:
• Service-based model
• Community-based model
• Need to ensure whichever model, that
programmes are acceptable, accessible, and
sustainable
14. Concurrent Session 3
Capacity Building in ECD, participants interested
in the following areas as related to CB:
• Global perspectives & success stories
• Policy advocacy
• Tools models and approaches
• Training-practice in-service
• Perspectives from Canada, Pakistan,
Singapore, Bangladesh, & Australia
15. Concurrent Sessions 3-4, 3-5
Examined models of early intervention in
several contexts:
• Early intervention services in Bhutan, Sri
Lanka, Nepal were analysed using the
Tanahashi Model
• Case study of a mobile playgroup called
PlayLinks in Australia
16. Concurrent Session 3-6
Play!
• Guiding principles for good toys discussed
• Participants chose toys from a selection—all
chose home-made toys over commercial toys
when divided into groups to explore, learn
and practice with the new toys
17. Concurrent Session 4 Advocacy
Overview of innovative advocacy strategies in
the region:
• Mongolia—parent’s club
• Bhutan—strengthening the case for ECD
• Singapore—understanding men’s perspectives
• Sri Lanka—ECCD in emergency situations
• Nepal—using ELDS in advocacy
18. Morning Sessions Today
• Capacity building of ECCD workers
• ECD leadership
• Exclusion of marginalized & its impact
• Child protection
• Disaster risk reduction for very young children
19. Afternoon Sessions Today
• Training certification in Singapore
• Capacity building of health workers and
parents, Thailand
• Pilot project in China for holistic ECD
• ECD Observations from Hong Kong
• Family and community based support for ECD
in the Philippines and Sri Lanka
• Workshop for a development appraisal tool
used in Pakistan
20. Common Themes of the Week
• Evidence based ECD practice
• Culturally and contextually appropriate ECD
policies, programmes, and interventions
• The need for an effective communication
platform to share ECD knowledge and experience
• The need to find effective ways to influence
national ECD policy and the global agenda
• The need to develop a range of entry points to
serve very young children and their families when
confronted with the reality of various sectors
providing services in isolation
The conference purposed to cover a number of areas that are interrelated and the following learning strands guided the selection of papers and topics. One can hardly speak of one without touching on another. And as Ms Rao pointed out in her welcoming address, the process is one of an endless feedback loop. And it was repeated often enough this week about the need for ‘evidence based’ practices, although the exact nature of what are legitimate ways to measure and determine ‘evidence based’ practices is an ongoing debate.
We heard about the Lancet 2011 article, and the emerging recognition of the importance of maternal mental health, as well as various regional reports of research on such topics as comparing centre-based and home-based programmes in Bangladesh; engaging parents, particularly fathers, in caregiving for very young children; the development of the National Action Plan for ECCD in Cambodia; the development of the East Asia-Pacific Scales from China; and many many more. Throughout we have shared our experiences, the policy tools under which we work, or try to work to promote holistic ECD Throughout we have also questioned, clarified, challenged, and even disagreed on finer points, although we are all agree on finding ways to reach the youngest and most vulnerable members of society Networking, conversations about current or potentional partnerships, or even listening with a sympathetic ear to the challenges experienced by colleagues in other parts of our region filled our times between sessions These three days created ample opportunities to learn from one another, from experts, and even from ourselves as we perhaps began to see our work differently
Again and again, this was mentioned along with the debate about just how to get the ‘evidence’ most appropriately A genuine desire to listen to and work with national and local governments, communities, and parents to find the right fit of policies and programmes, international and local partners working together in mutual respect, training, learning together to find ways to serve the very young Again and again, we heard how ARNEC is provided a valued service in facilitating networking within the Asia Pacific Region The post-2015 global agenda was discussed, and the panel discussion on Wednesday raised a number areas that we—as government officials, researchers, and practitioners—would like to see included, bcs ECD does not have its own goal in either the MDG or EFA Yet we also face the challenging reality of fragmented services, and very practically we have shared our experiences “from the field” in paper presentations and in the surveys returned for the resource package. A personal word to those of you who returned the surveys—we weren’t sure what to expect, but as the surveys began showing up in my inbox and I was preparing the summaries for the resource package, I was moved by the amount of ECD work, very good work, very challenging work, that was being done all around the Asia Pacific region on behalf of very young children and their families
