The Arab Network for Early Childhood Development convened an Executive Committee meeting in Amman on 31 January, 1 and 2 February 2020 in order to develop its strategic plan for the coming three years. The three-day workshop elaborated the nature, values, vision, and mission of the Network through diverse activities that outlined the key strategic objectives that feed into the needs and priorities of the Arab region as well as the sustainable developmental goals of the global framework of ECD. The five strategic areas the Network will be tackling in the three coming years are: Child Rights, ECD in Emergency and Crisis Contexts, Digital Empowerment and Intervention at a distance, Challenges of Ecology and Climate Change in ECD, and ECD Workforce. Moreover, ANECD plans to meet those objectives through three integrated work modalities, referred to as crosscutting work approaches, which are Knowledge Production and promotion, Partnership and advocacy, and Policy intervention. The plan reflects ANECD’S vision of Children in Arab communities enjoying their rights, happiness, and well-being in an enriching environment of freedom, social justice, and equity through its mission to connect, empower, align, advocate, produce, and deliver, by means of effective networking and regionalized ECD resources and expertise, to Arab communities on young children rights to health, education, family life, play and recreation, an adequate standard of living, and protection from abuse and harm.

However, with the Corona pandemic emphasizing and its ramifications overlapping with the areas covered in the network’s strategy, ANECD decided to upgrade its strategic plan by focusing on the impact of the virus that will continue in the coming years. Accordingly, an emergency plan has been developed addressing the internal communication and activities of the Network’s members as well as the external communication and the Network’s priorities.

Finally, the Network emphasizes its holistic approach in ECD, integrating health, nutrition, early learning, child protection, and policy development as cross-sectoral issues to the well-being of children.

Check the Strategy (English, Arabic)