13 December 2021: The United Republic of Tanzania has become the first country in the Eastern and Central Africa to launch a national multisectoral Early Childhood Development Programme that will be implemented from financial year 2021/2022 to 2025/2026.
Investing in the early years of life has a profound impact on brain development, affecting a child’s learning, health, behaviour, and ultimately, income. It is well recognized that targeted investments in Early Childhood Development (ECD) offer opportunities to address inequalities, break the cycle of poverty and improve outcomes in later life.
The launch event gathering actors from Health, Education, Internal Affairs, Finance and Local Government sectors; Development Partners; Representatives from UN Agencies, CSOs and NGOs; was officiated by the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children on behalf of Her Excellency President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The National Multisectoral ECD Programme seeks to ensure that all children in Tanzania are developmentally on track to reach their full potential. During the development process TECDEN engaged full as co-chair coordinating non-state actors in development process of the NM-ECD programme. Currently, TECDEN works collaboratively with the government and all ECD stakeholders to catalyze and support the implementation of the Programme across Tanzania Mainland.
Drawing from global instruments, the new program is geared towards bringing change for young children through providing enabling environment, strengthened service delivery, quality assurance, increased access to quality and coordinated services to young children, empowering of caregivers, families, and communities to adopt and practice nurturing care.