May 22, 2025 – Scaling Innovative Approaches to Early Childhood Education: System Strengthening, Partnerships and Parental & Community Engagement. From 2019 to 2024, the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX), a joint endeavor with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), supported 41 applied research projects focused on key challenges facing education systems across the Global South. Eight of these projects aimed to contextualize and scale innovative approaches to strengthen inclusive early childhood education innovations in GPE partner countries, including five projects co-financed by the LEGO Foundation.
This second webinar in this series organized by the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), GPE, IDRC and the LEGO Foundation followed the first webinar held on March 6, 2025, which attracted over 600 participants.
The webinar highlighted evidence-based approaches in the following thematic areas:
• Scaling and sustainability on ECE in education-sector planning
• ECE partnerships, community and parental participation
During this webinar, policymakers, researchers, and early childhood stakeholders learned about ‘what works’ across countries and contexts in Africa. Speakers included representatives from EDCAN, IDRC, GPE KIX, the LEGO Foundation, UNICEF, Zambia Open Community Schools, governments and local early childhood development partners.
Speakers included:
- Divya Lata, Early Childhood Education Program, UNICEF
- Elizabeth Lule, Executive Director, ECDAN
- Melody Martin, Deputy Director, Preprimary, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), Sierra Leone
- Sarafino Tisa Salvatore, Deputy Director for Early Childhood Education- Ministry of General Education and Instruction, South Sudan
And more!
