Over 45 countries and 500 participants gather to support enhancing and developing early childhood services in Africa #Istand4children #AfECN2018’The Africa We Want – A Better Future Now’ is supported by Open Society Foundations, UNICEF, World Forum Foundation, ELP, Hilton Foundation, CIFF and Bernard Von Leer Foundation

Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Representatives from over 45 countries in Africa convene today in Nairobi to discuss one of the greatest challenges, and opportunities, facing the continent: how to support the proper nurturing of children during the most pivotal days of their lives. This historic event on early childhood development, taking place from October 17 – 19 and entitled “The Africa We Want: A Better Future Now” will involve over 500 participants from all over Sub Saharan Africa including government ministers, African Union delegates, NGOs, and regional and local practitioners.

Lynette Okengo, Executive Director of the Africa Early Childhood Network, which is organizing this historic event, said: “By 2050, more than 40 per cent of the children in the world will live in Africa. This population growth offers an economic opportunity for Africa but reaping the benefits of this demographic dividend can only be achieved by nurturing children in the early stages of their development. We must ensure that our children not only survive, but thrive”

Early childhood development is one of the most pressing issues facing the African continent today. Research shows that over 90 per cent of a child’s brain develops by the time they reach age five. In Sub Saharan Africa, 66 per cent of children under the age of 5 risk failing to reach their developmental potential because of poverty, poor health and nutrition, and lack of early stimulation.

“The Africa We Want: A Better Future Now” aims to strengthen advocacy for holistic approaches to early childhood development. It will see the launch of the African Union Commission’s Early Childhood Education and Development Cluster roadmap, and provide a platform to discuss the Nurturing Care Framework, launched during the World Health Assembly in May. With a program of interactive sessions, enlightening talks and inspiring debates this event will provide an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and the development of skills, with a strong focus on strengthening partnerships and building new collaborations.

Lynette Okengo, Executive Director of the Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN), says:

“The huge participation in this event, including everyone from high level Kenyan delegates to early childhood practitioners – from Mozambique to Liberia to Ethiopia – shows that early childhood development is truly on the agenda in Africa. If we are to reach our Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 we need a fully rounded approach to supporting children, families and communities.”

Need further information?Write to the Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN) at conference@africaecdnetwork.org

Registration and accreditation for a press pass?Please bring your media credentials and identification documents to The Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi.

ABOUT NURTURING CARE FRAMEWORK:

In recognition of the importance of the early years, WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank, in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, the Early Childhood Development Action Network and many other partners, have developed the Nurturing Care Framework that was launched during the World Health Assembly in May, 2018. The framework adopts a whole-society approach that guides families, policy makers, public and private practitioners on providing environments that will ensure that children not only survive but thrive and are able to play their part in transforming their communities (For further reading, visit here.) Implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework will play a critical role in advancing achievement of the SDGs 2030 and African Union Commission Agenda 2063.

AFRICA EARLY CHILDHOOD NETWORK:Africa Early Childhood Network is a professional network established in 2015 to serve as a platform for the promotion of excellence and collaboration in protecting children’s rights, influencing policy and practice through advocacy, strengthened partnership and sharing of experience and knowledge. AfECN, a regional coordination group, works closely with Early Childhood Development Network for Kenya.

On 4 September, 2018, AfECN was endorsed as Coordinator for African Union Commission’s (AUC’s) CESA ECED cluster. This was adopted during a convening by AU member states, Regional Economic Communities (REC’s) and key ECD stakeholders at the AUC headquarters in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, to launch the ECED Cluster. A

ECD NETWORK FOR KENYA (ECDNEK)Kenya recognizes that Early Childhood (0-8) years is the most rapid period of development in a human life, serving as the most important years for survival, growth and development. It is within these years that a child develops the building blocks for cognitive, social, moral and emotional development. A child is most vulnerable at this stage to the risks of malnutrition, toxic stress and lack of stimulation, which negatively affects brain architecture and compromises learning and performance in later years.

Kenya’s constitution, under Article 53, guarantees the rights of the child to free and compulsory basic education, nutrition, shelter, health care and protection. The national government has developed robust Early Childhood policy frameworks; service delivery, however, falls under the jurisdiction of each of Kenya’s 47 county governments. More efforts are needed to improve on coordination, human resource capacity development and financing the successful implementation of high-quality, affordable Early Childhood programs across the country.

In this regard, Ministry of Health’s Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health Unit convened the 2nd National ECD Stakeholders‛ Conference in partnership with Ministry of Education (MOE), and Early Childhood Development Network for Kenya (ECDNeK) three months ago. 260 delegates from 26 counties and over 50 organizations, government agencies at National level, UN agencies, private sector, Philanthropists, donor communities and academia congregated at Kenyatta University, Nairobi – Kenya, for the 2nd National Early Childhood Development (ECD) Stakeholders‛ Conference that was held on 25 – 26 July 2018, themed ‘Accelerating Early Childhood Development through partnerships’.

(Endorsed stakeholders communique of 26, July 2018 is attached)

Stella Ndugire-Mbugua
African Early Childhood Network
stellashiku2005@yahoo.com

Denise Sammon
Open Society Foundations
denise.sammon@opensocietyfoundations.org

Ceres2030 will help donors prioritize investments by evaluating agricultural interventions and investment costs to achieve the U.N.’s sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030

Rome, Oct. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — How can donors best invest their money to support the world’s poorest farmers to improve productivity, support their families and end hunger across the globe by 2030?

This is the question driving Ceres2030, an initiative launched at the annual global meeting of the Committee on World Food Security at FAO headquarters in Rome on October 16: How can we use the data we have now to support access to a nutritious diet for the more than 820 million people who face food insecurity, while staying within our planet’s environmental limits? And what do these solutions cost?

Ceres2030 combines state-of-the-art modelling with expert evidence to strengthen the global agricultural development community as it prioritizes investments to achieve the U.N.’s sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030. Launched by Cornell University, the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on World Food Day, Ceres2030 is supported by a three-year, $3.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

“We live in an age of abundant research—and yet we don’t know how to apply it effectively to real and urgent problems,” said Jaron Porciello, co-director of Ceres2030 and associate director for International Programs’ research data engagement in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. “As a for instance, does the research data about controlling agricultural pests by using repellent ‘push’ plants and trap ‘pull’ plants to help farmers defeat the fall armyworm that threatens the food supply of 200 million people in 44 countries justify additional investment, and, if so, how much? With answers to questions like that, we can prioritize investments to help achieve zero hunger by 2030.”

Ceres2030 will map the fullest possible range of knowledge in agricultural research, establish protocols for systematic review, create a risk-of-bias tool, and then drill down to find the most powerful interventions that can help end hunger. These tools will be freely available to researchers anywhere.

So far, Ceres2030 has used natural language processing to aggregate more than 25,000 individual articles from 3500 journals and major agency databases (e.g., FAO, CGIAR, World Bank) to see how their content addresses critical issues in agriculture. “By using natural language processing, we are able to bypass the limitations of keywords and content categories and see into the granular conversations science is having, inside and outside the peer-reviewed agricultural literature,” said Porciello. “This, we believe, is the first time anyone is able to visualize the density and relevance of research that applies to smallholder farmers. It is the first step.”

Said Carin Smaller, co-director for Ceres2030 and senior policy advisor at IISD: “Consensus is at the core of our mission. We will work with a broad range of actors, starting with the people attending the Committee on World Food Security, to build a shared vision of what interventions work best, where they work, and under what conditions.”

Farmers and policymakers need to know not just the value of the interventions but the cost, said David Laborde, co-director of Ceres2030 and senior research fellow in the markets, trades, and institutions sivision at IFPRI. “This means we need to know the tradeoffs. While the U.N. has issued a call to action to the world with the sustainability development goals on zero hunger, it has given us a critically important caveat: We must preserve the environment.”

Said Smaller, “Agriculture is a powerful tool to end poverty and an engine of economic growth, but it is also responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and almost 70 percent of freshwater use. Food is also lost to rot because crops can’t be properly stored, processed, or brought to market on time. Ceres2030 is at the nexus of so many critical problems and the path to solving them—and it will provide the donor community with an evidence based on what works, what should the priorities for funding be, and why.”

When asked why the name Ceres2030, Porciello noted that Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, is also the goddess of common people. “So many times, the impact of agricultural research projects that have been funded for lots of money never reaches smallholder farmers,” she said. “We’re going to change that.”

-30-

Visit: www.ceres2030.org

Note to editors

About IP-CALS: International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (IP-CALS) at Cornell University meets the fundamental challenges of development and food security through teaching, research, and outreach programs that involve undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and mid-career professionals. With innovative research projects and degree programs that focus on food, agriculture and development, IP-CALS positively and sustainably improves global food security.

About IFPRI: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries.

About IISD: The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an independent think tank that delivers the knowledge to act. Our mission is to promote human development and environmental sustainability. Our big-picture view allows us to address the root causes of some of the greatest challenges facing our planet today – ecological destruction, social exclusion, unfair laws and economic and social rules, a changing climate. With offices in Winnipeg, Geneva, Ottawa, Toronto and New York, our work impacts lives in nearly 100 countries.

About SDG2 and Ceres2030: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted by countries in 2015, with a vision of ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. “Zero Hunger” is the second of the 17 Goals. As the UN notes, the aim of SDG 2 is “to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices: supporting small-scale farmers and allowing equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.”

A review of SDG2 at the High Level Political Forum in 2017 focused on smallholder productivity and environmental sustainability as the key elements in achieving zero hunger, but noted that each suffered from a dearth of quality evidence and data on how they could be improved and combined to do just that. Ceres2030 was conceived to find that data and evidence through devising evidence synthesis reviews and other analytic tools for agricultural and rural development research, mobilizing experts to reach consensus on interventions, and modeling costs so that resources can be spent wisely to implement the right interventions in the right place at the right time.

Attachments

• Fall Armyworm copylorez
• Africanfarmerlorez (1 of 1)

Linda McCandless
Cornell University 
6072275920
llm3@cornell.edu

csmaller@iisd.org
International Institute of Sustainable Development
+41789110896
csmaller@iisd.org