On 11 November 2021, the KIX EAP Hub organised its 10th webinar in collaboration with UNICEF and GPE’s Better Early Learning and Development at Scale (BELDS), an innovative partnership and knowledge initiative for integrating early child education (ECE) in sectoral planning. Attended by 202 people from approximately 48 countries, this webinar demonstrated the dire need to prioritise quality early childhood education through systems-level solutions with sustainability and capacity development at its core. 

For highlights and presentation slide deck on the webinar, please visit: https://www.norrag.org/event-highlights-kix-eap-webinar-tools-for-transformation-advancing-early-learning-through-the-ece-accelerator-toolkit/ 

To lear more about the ECE Accelerator toolkit, please visit: https://www.ece-accelerator.org/ 

A discussion paper on child sensitivity and 2020-2021 nationally determined contributions (NDCs)

The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. It is a direct threat to a child’s ability to survive, grow and thrive. Children and young people are the least responsible for climate change yet will bear the greatest burden of its impacts. Therefore, it is critical that national climate policies that set forth the priorities for climate response in countries are child sensitive. 

This is an interim discussion paper that will be updated after all remaining NDCs are submitted. It demonstrates a gap in child sensitivity of climate policies, explains the importance of including the needs and priorities of children and young people in policies and plans to benefit the whole of society, identifies best practices, and provides guidance for policymakers on how to meaningfully partner with children and young people as climate and environmental champions for a sustainable response.

For more information, please visit: https://www.unicef.org/documents/child-sensitive-climate-environment-policies 

Dr. Sheldon Shaeffer, Chair of the ARNEC Board of Directors, shares his insights on the impact of climate change on young children and early childhood development (ECD) in his blog featured on Bonnie’s Global Café under the series ‘Our World from my Window’ series. 

Watch the 15-minute blog here: https://bonniesglobalcafe.worldforumfoundation.org/our-world-from-my-window/  

This blog is being made available with the permission of the World Forum Foundation.

From day one, core mission of Bonnie’s Global Café has remained unchanged:

People who commit their lives to young children and their families have powerful stories to tell and we can find our own hope and inspiration as we listen. Bonnie’s Global Café is the space where people gather to share their stories. Stop by for tea and find affirmation and companionship

Bonnie’s Global Café was launched as a World Forum Foundation project by Bonnie and Neugebauer, co-founders of the World Forum Foundation. Bonnie’s objective was to enable people who are participants in World Forum Foundation community from over 100 countries to share their stories and news from their countries and to connect with each other through this sharing. So far over 250 members of the World Forum community from over 50 countries had shared news and stories in Bonnie’s Global Café.

Tobacco poses risks to children’s survival, health and development. Protecting children from tobacco smoke is essential to helping them survive and thrive. Children exposed to tobacco smoke are at an increased risk of a range of diseases and are more likely to take up smoking themselves. Enabling children to grow up free from the dangers of tobacco and nicotine is a key aspect of providing clean, safe and secure environments. Comprehensive smoke-free policies positively impact child health and development.

This webinar convened by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the International Pediatric Association and the ECD Action Network, probes further into the Thematic Brief "Tobacco control for children’s health and development" and provides examples of how comprehensive smoke-free policies positively impact child health and development.

This webinar will review the health risks that tobacco and second-hand smoke poses to children, starting from the prenatal period, and the strong protective effects of tobacco control measures. The webinar will provide an overview of World Health Organization’s package of proven effective measures, MPOWER, and include examples of how countries are taking action to create smoke-free environments.

Watch the recording on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcujtbRr4vk