Presentation during the 2009 ISSA Conference

1. Presentation during the 2009 ISSA Conference Draft Communiqué from ISSA Roundtable on ECD Policy, Bucharest 14 October 2009 Presented by: Emily Vargas Baron

2. Participants • 14 nations of CEE/CIS: Ministerial representatives and partner agencies • UNICEF ECD Focal Points • Key Presenters: John Bennett, Nathan A. Fox, Stuart Shanker, and James Heckman (via video) • Observers from many international and regional institutions and invited guests

3. Organisers • ISSA • Romanian Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation In partnership with: • UNICEF • OSI • Consultative Group on ECCD

4. Proceedings • Introductory remarks on country situations presented by country ECD leaders • Regional background and current ECD context (Sarah Klaus, Aija Tuna and John Bennett) • Why invest in young children (James Heckman, Stuart Shanker and Nathan Fox) • Types of effective investments (John Bennett, Monika Rosciszewska-Wozniak, Rada Rangelov-Jusovic, Saltanat Buisaleva, and Mihai Tudor) • Discussion of Communiqué

5. The Communiqué • Brief introduction on region’s situation • Recommendations to Nations of the CEE/CIS Region for the Full Realization of Children’s Right to a Good Start in Life • Six Recommendations • Next steps for ECD policy development • Background document • References

6. Recommendations • Expand, diversify and maximise investments in ECD, and work to achieve the goal of investing 1% of GDP in services for holistic child development. • Phased plans for expanding investments to achieve target • Cost studies, projections, simulations and budgets • Articulate, harmonise and fill gaps • Universal services with focus on vulnerable children • Within existing national policy settings, develop ECD policy frameworks, strategic plans, legislation, regulations, standards and inter-agency agreements, and build effective coordination systems across all sectors. • Build on existing heritage of policies and other instruments • Articulate with other sectoral and multi-sectoral policies • Include government, civil society and private sector at all levels. • Focus also on comprehensive municipal-level ECD planning

7. Recommendations • Promote parent education and support, including parent involvement in community-based ECD services. • Community as the focus for integrated ECD services • Parenting programs based on positive practices in each culture and community • Begin with preconception and prenatal education and care • Design services to go to scale from the outset • Prioritise vulnerable and marginalised young children and children from birth to 3 years of age. • Improve parenting skills to ensure greater self-regulation, balanced child development and good mental health. • Develop early childhood intervention (ECI) services for children with high-risk situations, developmental delays and disabilities. • Support families and children to decrease abandonment and institutionalisation.

8. Recommendations (cont.) • To improve service quality, strengthen the training of early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals, provide incentives for capacity building, design monitoring and evaluation systems and promote quality research. • Quality is essential for achieving promised results • Develop incentives including reducing workplace stress, improving pay scales, working conditions and the status of ECD personnel • Devote at least 10% - 12% of project budget to linked supervision, in-service training, monitoring, evaluation and research • Conduct ECD policy advocacy and prepare effective social communications (media) strategies to promote good parenting practices and ECD services. • Policy advocacy is required before, during and after policy adoption • Communications plans should be included in policies and media representatives should participate in policy planning activities.

9. Next Steps for ECD Policy Development: ISSA & Partners • Conduct an annual high-level ministerial roundtable • Convene regional and sub-regional technical meetings • Promote collaborative and comparative ECD policy planning processes and studies • Hold regional and sub-regional seminars on ECD policy and financial indicators, measures and targets • Hold a workshop on ECD costs, projections, simulations and budgeting to maximise investments • Monitor national ECD financing through tracking investments, expenditures and use of projections and simulations

10. Next Steps (cont.) • Develop CEE/CIS policy briefs, handbooks and guides: • Why invest in ECD? • Importance of investment in preconception, prenatal education and care, neonatal and 0 - 3 • Emerging neuroscience and early learning research results • Short, medium and long-term results from ECD investments • How to conduct participatory consultation workshops • Country policy planning reviews • Studies on lessons learned regarding ECD policy and financial planning • Descriptions of cost-effective services and help with designing research

11. Next Steps (cont.) • Promote the development of ECD research capacity in CEE/CIS region and in each country and also consider possibly developing an ECD research institute • Consider developing a “Year for ECD” in the regions, collaborating with the Council of Europe to establish an inter-regional campaign for ECD, and linking CEE/CIS activities with the UNESCO World Conference for ECD, Moscow, September 2010

12. Review and Revision • Participating country representatives in the Roundtable and in the ISSA Conference will be sent the draft copy • Focus group discussions will be organized at national level • Draft Communiqué will be revised with feedback collected • Communiqué will be disseminated in a printed copy and also placed on ISSA and other websites