Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

In these conversations I have gained insights on how other countries view early childhood. For the most part in comparison to the U.S. these countries have deemed early childhood education very necessary and important as well as more work is needed from all aspects in order to better prepare children in early childhood programs.

In Columbia my international counterpart Laure has provided this feedback: In Colombia there has been a strong and serious work done on the subject of early childhood education from various scenarios. The Ministry of Education and some ONG’s have allocated resources, often generous, to this purpose. President Santos and his wife designed the Zero to Always Strategy, which seeks to combine the efforts of the public and private sectors, the civil society and international cooperation for Early Childhood in Colombia. The ICBF (Colombian Institute of Family Welfare) works for the prevention and comprehensive protection of infancy, childhood, adolescence and welfare of families in Colombia. Additionally, the findings in research and evaluation of programs and policies are generally very interesting.

However, it is worth noting that there are two aspects that affect the impact on the quality and equity in education that are not as expected. The first is the lack of linkage between public policy governing institutions and between them and the operators. It's a shame to see how knowledge derived from studies is hardly shared and even hardly transferred to those who are directly related to children.

The second aspect is embarrassing, by its obviousness. On childhood education research teams the presence of educators with investigative career and most importantly, with experience of working directly with children is virtually nonexistent. While other professionals such as psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists, among others are welcomed, because these studies must be interdisciplinary, it is inexplicable the absence of high-profile educators in these studies. This causes that recommendations made are as known that it is silly to say or do not say anything to children’s educators.

In these circumstances, there is a risk that equity and quality of education remain on paper.

 

My professional counterpart Judy from Jamaica has provided me with information in relation to excellence and equity which are at the forefront of professional discussions she provided information from UNICEF annual report from Jamaica. A psychosocial support has been formed in 2011, UNICEF developed partnerships with the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network to expand mobilize and enrich youth participation, and the Crisis Management Alliance was created as well. The UNICEF has supported the development of partner’s capacity through various approaches including workshops on UN/UNICEF processes technical support in specific thematic areas and local as well as international learning opportunities (UNICEF, 2011). Partners will need to understand and apply UN/UNICEF processes in order to access and use UNICEF resources and support and has been provided in the form of training workshops, one-on-one assistance and written notes of guidance, as an integral part of the programming cycle. There have been learning opportunities related to fulfilling and protecting child rights have been made available to partners through participation in conferences, seminars and workshops either locally through an organization called 5^th Caribbean Child Research and Yutex Conferences or internationally (such as the study tour to Mexico) to observe parenting programs (UNICEF, 2011). UNICEF has also used their abundantly accepted and appreciated convening role to facilitate partner –to-partner learning opportunities as well utilizing web-based training in C4D for partners involved in breast feeding promotions (UNICEF, 2011). 

From previous experience capacity development efforts must be on-going systematic relevant and readily applicable (UNICEF, 2011). Over the next two years efforts to develop programming capacity will be increasingly valuable as major changes will be made in the UNICEF programming process. In addition a collaborative effort to address equity issues and the rights of the most vulnerable children will require partners to develop more capacity in gathering and analyzing data more accurate targeting and prioritization regular monitoring and evaluation and above all a commitment to rights-based programming and human rights principles (UNICEF, 2011).  

 

http://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Jamaica_COAR_2010.pdf