PRECEDE MANIFESTO Partnership for Reconciliation through Early Childhood Education and Development in Europe (PRECEDE) Partnership for Reconciliation through Early Childhood Education and Development in Europe (PRECEDE) is a regional network of civil society organizations from seven European countries: “Early Years - the organisation for young children” from Northern Ireland, UK”; “Partnerë për Fëmijët”(Partners for Children) from Albania; “Balkan Sunflowers” from Kosovo; “The Center for Civil Initiatives”(CCI) from Croatia; “First Children’s Embassy in the World - Megjashi” from Macedonia; “Djeca prije svega” from Montenegro, and “Pomoć deci” from Serbia. The main objective of the PRECEDE network is to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations in the Balkan region and Europe, and to support the process of acceptance, peace-building, reconciliation, respect for diversity and unity through education in the early years. We, as PRECEDE partners want to ensure that children receive a priority focus in the process of all public policy-making developments, at regional and national level.

1. PRECEDE MANIFESTO
Partnership for Reconciliation through Early Childhood Education and Development in Europe
(PRECEDE) is a regional network of civil society organizations from seven European countries: “Early
Years - the organisation for young children” from Northern Ireland, UK”;1
“Partnerë për
Fëmijët”(Partners for Children) from Albania;2
“Balkan Sunflowers” from Kosovo;3
“The Center for
Civil Initiatives”(CCI) from Croatia;4
“First Children’s Embassy in the World - Megjashi” from
Macedonia;5
“Djeca prije svega” from Montenegro,6
and “Pomoć deci” from Serbia.7
The main objective of the PRECEDE network is to strengthen the capacity of civil society
organizations in the Balkan region and Europe, and to support the process of acceptance, peace-
building, reconciliation, respect for diversity and unity through education in the early years.
We, as PRECEDE partners want to ensure that children receive a priority focus in the process of all
public policy-making developments, at regional and national level.
Various contemporary researches show that inclusion of children in pre-school education from very
early age has a positive impact on children’s social skills and academic achievements throughout their
life, which further reflects positively on the community and the entire society in general.
In addition, different emerging research findings show that early childhood education and development
has a huge influence on future peacebuilding, diversity and social cohesion. Sensitizing children about
equality, tolerance, mutual acceptance and respect beyond their differences, nurturing culture of peace
and non-violence in stimulating early years’ environments is a great attempt to foster social justice,
conflict prevention and build sustainable peace.
Consequently, this is a vital opportunity to acknowledge the importance of an advanced and peace-
oriented early childhood sector to young children, their families and their communities, and to recognize
the worthiness of contributing to a better future for all children, their well-being and best interest, as this
is considered a prime investment of a truly responsible and socially just society.
The Precede Manifesto for children serves as an agreement that recognizes, supports and promotes
the importance of early childhood education, development, proper upbringing and good caregiving,
1 www.early-years.org
2 www.partnereperfemijet.org
3 www.balkansunflowers.org
4 www.cci.hr
5 childrensembassy.org.mk
6 www.djecaps.me/index.php/mne
7 www.pomocdeci.org/sr

2. while learning culture of respect, inclusion and acceptance of diversity from the early years. The most
important aim of this official document is to be accepted, signed and followed through by the political
parties, other official national, regional and international institutions and organizations, stating the
importance of promoting the culture of respect, peace and acceptance of diversity from the early years.
Without exception, all relevant institutions see the concept of inclusion and respect for diversity as a
crucial element of young children’s lives and learning in order for less discrimination, prejudices,
stereotypes and social conflict.
By pointing out the following issues, we want to put an accent on promoting the need for a Balkan and
European focus on early childhood education, care and development and within this, respect for
diversity and social inclusion as a preamble to social cohesion.
In general, accepting the proposed directions within the Precede Manifesto regionally, as well as
nationally, has the potential to bring about the much needed and long awaited leadership, commitment,
co-ordination and cohesion to the delivery of holistic child-centred early years and family policy.
By signing the Precede Manifesto, we urge the relevant institutions, political parties, MPs, other
national and regional bodies, local communities, including parents, pre-school teachers, caregivers,
educators, together with the media, civil society organizations, formal and informal groups to MAKE A
REAL DIFFERENCE FOR CHILDREN by committing to:
 Promote and protect the rights of the children as agreed by signing the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). That implies that the States that ratified the
Convention are obliged to respect and to ensure that all rights it establishes in the name of
children are respected. Protecting children’s rights is a national and international issue. At a
national level, we’re calling upon all governments to recommit to the UNCRC by focusing on
three key areas:
-Ensuring all legislation is in full compliance with the UNCRC.
-Increasing government spending on children and ensuring that resources are being used
effectively.
-Establishing an independent ombudsman or supporting the work of the already established
Child Ombudsman (if any) for the protection and promotion of children’s rights in every
country, and setting up an international complaints procedure for the UNCRC.
 Involve children in public decision making, by recognizing them as active members of
families, communities and societies with their own concerns, interests and points of view which
they communicate in numerous ways long before they are able to communicate through the
conventions of spoken or written language.
Most children are not included in discussions about issues that affect them. Participation must
start from early years and is about children having the opportunity to express their views,
influence decision-making and achieve change. We believe participation is a way of working and
an essential principle that should be applied to all arenas – from homes to government, from
local to international levels. It is of utmost importance for institutions to find an adequate way to
support children’s meaningful involvement in the governance, planning, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of their work.
As indicated by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment No. 12 on the
‘Right of the Child to be Heard’. This outlines their obligations to listen to children, and advises
governments, NGOs, policy-makers and international agencies on how to include children’s

3. views and opinions.
 Provide equal inclusion of all children in the early years, childcare and family support
services. Ensure that all early years, childcare and family support services are available and
accessible to the most vulnerable and excluded children and their families. This is particularly
important for children and families experiencing and/or at risk of discrimination, including
children living in poverty; children with disabilities; minority ethnic children and children from
rural communities. It is also important for families where a parent or parents are ill or disabled
and therefore require support. Where necessary additional support must be available so that
these children and their families have equal opportunity to benefit from the early years, childcare
and family support provision that should be available to all families with children.
This Manifesto encourages that all countries find the capacity and means to provide free-of-
charge access to the early childhood education and development programmes for the most
vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalized groups in society, regardless of their location.
 Invest in the early years, childcare and family support workforce in terms of
responsibilities around qualification, training, employment and continuous capacity strengthening
by providing adequate resources in order to encourage an improvement in the status of the
workforce.
This manifesto calls for much more creative and innovative approach to, and recognition of, the
childcare workforce and professional development than present that reflects what the workforce
in turn brings to the education and care of children and also incorporates and overhauls how
vocational and academic training, the profession and career development are addressed in
schools, institutions and colleges.
With the overriding scientific view that preschool education is the most important and the
foundation for life-long learning that there is so little systematic effort by the education
institutions to ensure that those given the responsibility to develop and educate the youngest
children are adequately prepared and supported to undertake this important task. Training
should reflect our increasingly diverse society and include training on implementing children’s
rights in early childhood.
Efforts also must be made to encourage and facilitate more men to join the workforce and to
constantly upgrade the capacity and skill level of preschool teachers and caregivers in all the
countries.
 Create and support ways for parental involvement in the development, care and education
of young children is seen as very important and more influential than that of the pre-school
teacher. As the first and continuous educators of young children and the ones who formulate
many of the beliefs and stereotypes in children, it is important for more emphasis to be given to
parents and family members.
Governments must also recognise and support the role of parents in representing the best
interests of very young children or children with severe communication difficulties.
 Integrate modules and topics relevant to conflict prevention, tolerance, peace building and
reconciliation into the national preschool curricula.
We, as PRECEDE network, recognize the issues of inclusion, peace building, reconciliation, conflict
resolution, protection of the rights of the child, respect and tolerance within the sphere of early
childhood care and development as both important and relevant.
It is highly important that starting from early age, children are taught together and learn about each
other’s differences as this leads to social cohesion and better understanding. It is vital to the
children’s development to be properly sensitized by addressing issues of respect for diversity,

4. recognition and appropriate reactions to emotions and understanding of exclusion. Therefore, we
urge the national governments i.e. ministries of education to embrace the methods and activities
included in the PRECEDE Toolkit on Respect for Diversity by fully integrating the toolkit’s
programmatic approaches to inclusion and respect for diversity into the national kindergarten
programmes. Incorporating the toolkit as an alternative or additional programme for use in
kindergartens across the countries will be highly beneficial. In some countries, this would require
the official accreditation of the toolkit by the responsibly national education institutes and the
ministries of education.
 Provide access to quality affordable childcare facilities that provide care and development
opportunities for children. Childcare provision could be also considered “equality issue” and is a
crucial component in enabling women who are socially/economically disadvantaged to take
up/return to training and/or education, thereby enhancing their employability and assisting in
the transition into the paid labour market. The Manifesto urges the policy-makers to work
towards ensuring that there is sufficient high quality, accessible, affordable childcare to meet
demand across countries.
We also want to see the development and implementation of a regional childcare information
service to ensure that parents are able to access childcare that best meets the needs of their child
in a timely and appropriate manner.
Equally, the Government must support those parents, who choose to stay at home to care for
their children in their early years by providing access to appropriate home-based and group
support services. For mothers to be afforded the option to stay at home it must be a financially
viable option and one which will not adversely affect their economic/financial situation in the
long-term.
 Strongly recommend early childhood education from the age of three
It is necessary to enable earlier access to early childhood development programmes and increase
participation level. The PRECEDE Manifesto urges the State Governments in the region to take
action and create conditions in their countries and accordingly adjust their legislations, in order
to ensure improved participation in quality early childhood education for all children.
Research shows that participating in a quality early childhood education programme can
significantly increase positive educational and life outcomes for children, especially those from
more disadvantaged backgrounds. Children taught at an early age usually benefit in the following
ways: improved social skills, less or no need for special education instruction during subsequent
school years, better grades, and enhanced attention spans. Likewise, some researchers have
concluded that young children enrolled in pre-school programs usually graduate from high
school, attend college, have fewer behavioural problems, and do not become involved with
crime in their adolescent and young adult years. The best way to secure a child’s future is to give
them a head start in life. However, proper pre-schooling from the age of three could not only
benefit children, but also parents, as this will give them an option to actively participate in the
labour market without worrying whether their children are receiving a proper education and care.
Taking all the research and best practices into account, we encourage a policy change on a
national level across the region and taking practical steps by the governments toward making a
strong recommendation for the early childhood education and development process.
 Support the work of the already formed national PRECEDE networks
National PRECEDE networks in member countries of the regional partnership network have
been already formed and work continuously on the programme activities related to the topic of
reconciliation through early childhood education and development.
They are composed of civic associations and organizations, public and private institutions,
professionals and experts in preschool education and development, parents, researchers, policy

5. makers, services, children and human rights advocates, as well as other individuals and
organizations interested in the building strong and peace-oriented communities by developing a
sense of acceptance and cooperation from early childhood.
With this said, we would like to appeal to the political parties, national governments and other
relevant institutions to encourage and support the work and effort of the national PRECEDE
networks, as that will motivate and strengthen our mission in developing more cohesive societies
and more aware future generations.