There’s a famous African saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. This means it is essential for communities, parents and caregivers to care for and interact positively with children for them to grow in a healthy and safe environment.
To support this, the Aga Khan University in partnership with the Tanzania government initiatives on Early Childhood Development (ECD), conducted a two-day policy makers workshop at the Aga Khan Community Centre in Arusha. The workshop drew participation from over 35 national and regional policy implementors from various sectors, including health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, agriculture, social protection and finance.
Part of the discussions included execution of the WHO/UNICEF Nurturing Care Framework which aims to enable children survive, thrive and attain their developmental potential. It gave the policy makers an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the evidence behind ECD and equipped them to reflect on what they are already doing, what more they could do, and how they could make this happen within their strategic plans, policies and budgets.
Arusha Regional Administrative Secretary Athuman Kihamia said, “This project has come at the right time as we implement the National Plan for an integrated programme for early childhood development to be given priority and attention by the government. Despite the government’s various efforts to improve human services, communities still need support from stakeholders to improve basic education, development and education services in the country”.
Workshop facilitators dived into presentations and group discussions that gave the policy makers room to make an analysis of what policies should be advocated to enhance ECD.
“We have called these policy makers knowing that education issues are cross-cutting. We aim to connect the sectors from planning, nutrition, education, health protection and non-governmental organizations to gaining knowledge about child care. Through the early childhood development and development project, which seeks to provide evidence from the environment of children growing up in a challenging environment and here in Arusha it is implemented in pastoralist communities,” said Dr Fortidas Bakuza, faculty at AKU’s Institute for Educational Development, East Africa.
Mr Denis Mguje, Regional Social Welfare Officer from Arusha was pleased to have been part of this workshop together with his team, “This workshop was an eye opener not only issues on policy but also facilitation. We have prepared an action plan which will help the region to move on the ECD multisectoral implementation plan”.
The policy makers are expected to develop an action plan on nurturing care for the benefit of children. They will receive support while tracking the progress of their action plans.