A message from ARNECs Executive Director, Evelyn D. Santiago:

Dear ARNEC Partners, Friends and Members,

On behalf of the Secretariat, I am pleased to share with you ARNECs Annual report for 2015 featuring what we were able to accomplish under each of our goals and action pillars:

ARNEC Annual report 2015

As you know, 2015 was not an easy year for us as the Secretariat went through a major transition. But with all your support, we were able to finish the year with some meaningful accomplishments, which include the following:

• Co-organizing the Regional ECD Conference in Beijing with CDRF attended by 12 Ministers, 22 countries and more than 700 delegates who affirmed strong commitment to ECD in light of the SDGs

• Development of key advocacy materials related to ECD in the SDGs as well as ECD and social cohesion/peacebuilding

• Documentation of ECD Noteworthy Practices in several countries as well as the identification of innovative pedagogical approaches (which are being documented this year)

• Development of measurement tools such as the East Asia and Pacific ECD (EAP-ECD) Scales validated in six countries

• Representation in various global and regional ECD events

• Improvement of our web portal with the inclusion of ECD profiles for a number of countries and the initial work on the regional ECD dashboard

• Individual membership has also increased and we welcomed three (3) new institutional members (i.e., Friends of ARNEC)

In 2015, we have also started our strategy development process with the objective of charting ARNEC’s focus for the next five years. We are almost done with this process and we hope to launch our new strategy, ARNEC’s Vision 2020 before the end of June.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been supporting ARNEC. Special thanks goes to our key partners and core members: UNICEF, UNESCO, Plan International, Open Society Foundations, Save the Children and ChildFund International; all Friends of ARNEC; our Country Coordinators and ARNEC buddies; and all our individual members.

We are excited with our new strategy and we look forward to your continued support as we collectively push our ECD agenda in the Asia-Pacific Region and beyond!

Warm regards,

Evelyn