Improving equitable access to quality early childhood education and development services, particularly for the most vulnerable children in West and Central Africa.
Countries from West and Central Africa reaffirmed a strong consensus: ECED is a strategic priority for equity, human capital development, and regional resilience.
UNESCO Dakar
Convening in Dakar for the Regional Expert Meeting on Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED), countries from West and Central Africa reaffirmed a strong consensus: ECED is a strategic priority for equity, human capital development, and regional resilience. With just five years remaining until the 2030 Agenda, the challenge is no longer convincing, but accelerating action.
As Dimitri Sanga, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for West Africa, emphasized:
Discussions highlighted a dual challenge. On the one hand, expanding access to early childhood education and development services. On the other hand, ensuring their quality, inclusion, and continuity in a context marked both by persistent structural vulnerabilities — underfunding, limited human resources, and weak data systems — and by intensifying climate, security, and humanitarian crises. In this environment, young children remain particularly exposed.
Participants underscored that educational success and human development are shaped in the earliest years of life. From birth to eight years old, brain and socio-emotional development is particularly sensitive to living conditions. Early exposure to malnutrition, toxic stress, insecurity, or unstimulating environments leads to lasting delays, difficult to compensate later. This is why participants reaffirmed the necessity of a holistic approach to ECED, integrating health, nutrition, protection, early learning, and nurturing care to address the child’s overall needs coherently.
At the system level, a clear message emerged. While many countries have policy and strategic frameworks, scaling them up remains hampered by common constraints. ECED financing remains insufficient, fragmented, and unpredictable. Systems suffer from a shortage of qualified personnel, often facing challenging working conditions and limited supervision. Multisectoral coordination remains fragile, both in mandate allocation and local implementation. Finally, available data remain incomplete, limiting the ability to manage equity, measure results, and strengthen accountability.
In this context, partners emphasized the importance of practical tools to move from analysis to action. Sophia Ashipala, Head of the Education Division at the African Union, noted:
The meeting also highlighted that resilience is now a minimum requirement. Climate shocks, conflicts, and forced displacement disrupt the continuity of essential services and directly affect young children’s development. ECED must therefore integrate adaptive responses, including resilient infrastructure, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, social protection mechanisms, continuity of education, and psychosocial support.
In this context, Janet Kayita, Team Lead for Family and Reproductive Health at the World Health Organization, expressed a clear expectation:
Beyond the diagnosis, the meeting produced concrete outcomes to guide public decision-making. It strengthened a shared understanding of the scientific and systemic determinants of ECED, aligned with a child-centered holistic approach. Countries also expressed increased ownership of the ECCE-PATT tool, widely recognized as a structuring instrument to diagnose bottlenecks, prioritize actions, and track progress. Expectations included technical support for self-assessment, involvement of decentralized levels, and translating diagnostics into sequenced, costed action plans.
As Moustapha Mamba Guirassy, Minister of National Education of Senegal, noted:
The meeting also paved the way for an operational roadmap toward the Regional Ministerial Conference scheduled for 2026. This roadmap includes clear steps and deliverables, from national consolidation of diagnostics and priorities to the development of a regional synthesis and preparation of a guidance document for ministerial adoption.
Discussions highlighted the need for a methodological shift. Transforming ECED cannot be achieved through a juxtaposition of isolated initiatives or scattered funding. It requires a true system architecture, results-driven, based on intersectoral coherence, equitable targeting, and sustainable investment. Participants agreed on clear priorities: institutionalize ECED coordination, professionalize personnel, invest in quality learning environments, strengthen data and accountability systems, and integrate resilience as a minimum standard, particularly in crisis contexts.
In conclusion, the expert meeting calls for rapid, structured, and coherent action. Each country is invited to transform diagnostics into prioritized action plans supported by ECCE-PATT and contribute to a robust regional synthesis ahead of the 2026 Ministerial Conference. The objective is clear: achieve credible, measurable, and funded commitments capable of improving equitable access to quality early childhood education and development services, particularly for the most vulnerable children in West and Central Africa.
Convening in Dakar for the Regional Expert Meeting on Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED), countries from West and Central Africa reaffirmed a strong consensus: ECED is a strategic priority for equity, human capital development, and regional resilience. With just five years remaining until the 2030 Agenda, the challenge is no longer convincing, but accelerating action.
As Dimitri Sanga, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for West Africa, emphasized:
Discussions highlighted a dual challenge. On the one hand, expanding access to early childhood education and development services. On the other hand, ensuring their quality, inclusion, and continuity in a context marked both by persistent structural vulnerabilities — underfunding, limited human resources, and weak data systems — and by intensifying climate, security, and humanitarian crises. In this environment, young children remain particularly exposed.
Participants underscored that educational success and human development are shaped in the earliest years of life. From birth to eight years old, brain and socio-emotional development is particularly sensitive to living conditions. Early exposure to malnutrition, toxic stress, insecurity, or unstimulating environments leads to lasting delays, difficult to compensate later. This is why participants reaffirmed the necessity of a holistic approach to ECED, integrating health, nutrition, protection, early learning, and nurturing care to address the child’s overall needs coherently.
At the system level, a clear message emerged. While many countries have policy and strategic frameworks, scaling them up remains hampered by common constraints. ECED financing remains insufficient, fragmented, and unpredictable. Systems suffer from a shortage of qualified personnel, often facing challenging working conditions and limited supervision. Multisectoral coordination remains fragile, both in mandate allocation and local implementation. Finally, available data remain incomplete, limiting the ability to manage equity, measure results, and strengthen accountability.
In this context, partners emphasized the importance of practical tools to move from analysis to action. Sophia Ashipala, Head of the Education Division at the African Union, noted:
The meeting also highlighted that resilience is now a minimum requirement. Climate shocks, conflicts, and forced displacement disrupt the continuity of essential services and directly affect young children’s development. ECED must therefore integrate adaptive responses, including resilient infrastructure, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, social protection mechanisms, continuity of education, and psychosocial support.
In this context, Janet Kayita, Team Lead for Family and Reproductive Health at the World Health Organization, expressed a clear expectation:
Beyond the diagnosis, the meeting produced concrete outcomes to guide public decision-making. It strengthened a shared understanding of the scientific and systemic determinants of ECED, aligned with a child-centered holistic approach. Countries also expressed increased ownership of the ECCE-PATT tool, widely recognized as a structuring instrument to diagnose bottlenecks, prioritize actions, and track progress. Expectations included technical support for self-assessment, involvement of decentralized levels, and translating diagnostics into sequenced, costed action plans.
As Moustapha Mamba Guirassy, Minister of National Education of Senegal, noted:
The meeting also paved the way for an operational roadmap toward the Regional Ministerial Conference scheduled for 2026. This roadmap includes clear steps and deliverables, from national consolidation of diagnostics and priorities to the development of a regional synthesis and preparation of a guidance document for ministerial adoption.
Discussions highlighted the need for a methodological shift. Transforming ECED cannot be achieved through a juxtaposition of isolated initiatives or scattered funding. It requires a true system architecture, results-driven, based on intersectoral coherence, equitable targeting, and sustainable investment. Participants agreed on clear priorities: institutionalize ECED coordination, professionalize personnel, invest in quality learning environments, strengthen data and accountability systems, and integrate resilience as a minimum standard, particularly in crisis contexts.
In conclusion, the expert meeting calls for rapid, structured, and coherent action. Each country is invited to transform diagnostics into prioritized action plans supported by ECCE-PATT and contribute to a robust regional synthesis ahead of the 2026 Ministerial Conference. The objective is clear: achieve credible, measurable, and funded commitments capable of improving equitable access to quality early childhood education and development services, particularly for the most vulnerable children in West and Central Africa.
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