Status of Children of the World The following reports were submitted in June 2016 by members of the World Forum Foundation community – National Representatives, Global Leaders for Young Children, and members of the International Advisory Group. The reports were summarized in an article in the July 2016 of Exchange Magazine and appear below, complete and unedited, in alphabetical order by country.

Albania Gerda Sula

There are different issues afflicting children in Albania right now. We have a decent primary health system, monitoring all children from before birth until they reach one year for free, following them at home and in mother-child centers. We have an issue with roma parents who don't register, hence not receiving health support. However, the support is very much health related, not instructing new parents on holistic development of the child and the importance of the early years for the future of the child. Education-wise, the creches are not considered part of education system, considering them only care-giving institutions, missing out on the opportunity for holistic education and development. Only 10% of children attend creches, only in urban areas, while the need is higher. the social services are Achille's heel - orphaned children, children from deprived families, children with special needs require adequate support, which is not well structured and supervised. there are differences between cities and villages, most services for children with special needs are private, requiring extra funds not available to most vulnerable groups. Regarding education, we are far from being child-centered in our early years philosophy. These last years have seen an "academization" of the early years, pushing for more pencil and pen tasks, and children learning to the standards, rather than exploring and play. teacher quality is not improving, especially due to the fact that the teaching profession, especially in the early years is poorly paid, not well respected in the society and the students choosing to become early years teachers are among the lowest performing students, the ones who don't have another option. Curriculum wise, these years have been very revolutionary, but offering no support, hence creating anxiety and worries to teachers who are not informed on why the curriculum is changing, or how they should go about to support the change. However, programs like Step by Step are constantly offering mentoring and organizing Professional Learning Communities as tools for teacher professional development, a task which should be delegated to the state as NGOs cannot be in charge of the whole country. In the framework of decentralization, the early years institutions are now the responsibility of municipalities, not always professional and with the adequate structures to ensure quality. The focus now is on increasing quantity, which can be dangerous, as a low quality early years education can be counterproductive.

Australia Emma Beckett

In Australia there is a widening gap in the health, education and wellbeing of Aboriginal children. There is an increase of youth suicide in Aboriginal communities with children as young as ten taking their own

lives. There is a current reform model proposed for the national child care benefit scheme, ( the subsidy families receive when they send their children to an early education and care service). this change would see children of non-working families penalised by the family activity test. Some of Australia's most vulnerable children will have their access to early education reduced to one day a week or not at all. at our service we modelled the effect of the proposed changes and found that 46%of our children would have their access to early education and care reduced. Aboriginal children are overrepresented in the out of home care sector, with children's removal from families on the increase. According to SNAICC, our National voice for Aboriginal children, 50% of Aboriginal children are removed from their homes and families by the age of 4. this results in a disconnection from community, language and culture. According to ACOSS in 2012 one in 6 Australian children were living below the poverty line. http://www.acoss.org.au/images/uploads/ACOSS_Poverty_in_Australia_2014.pdf

Australia Pitt Martine

Firstly i would like to preface my comments by stating i am a retiree from direct service so the knowledge i draw on is very much based on assessment of changes to supports delivered to the children of Australia or the lack or withdrawl of those. Reading current research from reports, papers published and general discussion with providers still in the field of eqrly childhood the issues of social and financial disadvantage are still weighting heavily in the outcomes for children. When we make advances in one area of perhaps disability and inclusion we are failing in others such as consequences if addiction of parents to the ever increasing growth of Ice in our country. Children in these families have a "normalized" concept of family life and will in many instances follow that path themselves being swept up in the addiction path earlier and earlier in life. Domestic violence appears to be on the increase in our country with women being murdered weekly and the consequence of that on a small population of less than 22million is traumatic for the children. They too are victims when parents use them to blackmail their partners with violence perpetuated on the children. General policy reforms have hit many service deliverers hard as the movement of government to reducing service delivery points for both money saving initiatives and reduction of costs have meant that local interventions, which are delivered at the community level are now in the hands of large agencies whose decision making is centralised a long way from the issues in the community. This leads to badly designed responses to local issues and inappropriate interventions which impact on the long term health of communities both mainstream and Indigenous. Disadvantaged families whose housing is inadequate cannot perform well at school, if in fact they attend given the unsure nature of their living arrangements as well as their lack of safety, health and hygiene. These children become refuse of the system. Children being forced to live in refugee holding systems have played out over the past year but there appears to be reasonable responses now in place to remove and relocate these children as soon as practicable but in all this should not happen. No access to my home computer as i am in Tacoma at the moment but when i reach LA i will try to find reeports to support these generalist remarks.

Bangladesh

Manjusree Mitra Bangladesh, which ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has committed itself to respect, defend, and promote the rights of Bangladeshi children. Though the government promised to fulfill the rights of children, the country could not yet able to ensure accessing the full enjoyment of their rights. The Government of Bangladesh could realize the impact of early learning and the profound importance of preparing young children for learning. The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has formulated a comprehensive Policy of Early Childhood Care and Development-2013. The government has therefore decided to include pre-primary education as an integral part of the primary education system. But still schools, service providers and parents are not ready to provide quality support to the individual child. The people from remote places, river embankment, and indigenous communities do not know the importance of early years. Those who know a little but could not afford, all these made the 0-8 years children in a very vulnerable situation, families could not provide necessary care to the children due to lack of awareness. Children of working mothers are also in a very difficult situation because there is lack of quality day care and learning center in the country. Sometimes, mothers drop their job for looking after their children. So, family suffers to get required amount of money, lose mental happiness and which directly affect the children well-being. In the perspective of ECCD there are no necessary services for all children. Even children from well off families usually do not get proper attention, interaction by the care takers, family members; they have enough toys, clothes and food but no proper service is available for their development. There is no counselor in most of the schools, no orientation for parents on child development, so parents do not get advice when needed. Where there are services most of the cases they are not with good quality. Country report ECCD in Bangladesh 2013 mentioned that 26 % (Those daily income less than 1 US $) of population living in poverty, out of them 10.9% children. The biggest challenges are developing and expanding ECCD services at institutional, community and family level focusing on conception to birth, 0-3, 4-5 and 6-8 years. And involvement of all relevant Ministries to the development of 0-8 year’s children, with commitment, enthusiasm and ensuring enough funding support.

Bhutan Karma Gayleg

Children under 5 constitute about 10 percent of the population. The government has put in tremendous efforts in providing free health care for all, of which mother and child health care is an important part. The health sector has introduced care for child development and early stimulation programmes in most of the health centres in the country. The Ministry of Education, on its part, has advocated relentlessly for early childhood care and development services over the past few years. Efforts have been made to promote sound parenting practices, care and stimulation at home as well as in other places.

In spite of the initiatives, challenges remain. According to the National Statistics Bureau, 37% of children under the age of five are stunted, 11% are underweight, and 5% wasted, and 9% of infants are born with a low birth weight. given this grave situation for young children, more needs to be to promote and strengthen health and education services for young children. Only 17% of children aged 3 to 5 have access to centre based early childhood programmes and services. Although there is no data on child poverty in Bhutan, 31.7 percent of the population live in poverty, which implies that a significant proportion of the population of young children are born and raised in families under poverty line. Given the government’s commitment to enhancing health and education services for young children, the future looks bright. Particularly with regard to ECCD service, the government has set a target of providing access to centre based ECCD services for 50% of all children aged 3 to 5 by 2024. The health sector has also set similar targets in terms of health care, nutrition and sanitation for young children. Considering the efforts being made presently, it is expected that children born in the near future will have considerably improved support system and environment for improved health, safety and education, wherein to survive, thrive and develop to their full potential. There will also be persisting challenges related to health, education and protection.

Brazil Maria Thereza Oliva Marcilio

In Brasil, 0 to 6 is the range as far as public policies for young children go. Considering this, we have some universal policies such as health care, immunization, early childhood education (nursery and preschool). There is a national plan for Early childhood which is approved by the National Council for Children's and Adolescent's Rights and provides the rational for all the public policies. Recently the President approved a Law called Marco Legal da Primeira Infância. So, there are many and good policies, the problem is we haven't been able to make it true to all children.Children are specially vulnerable to the violation of rights, to poverty and inequity in the country. As an example, 29% of the population live in poor families, however considering young children, this number can go as high as 45.6%. Black children, for example, have almost 70% more chances to live in poverty than white children; the same can be observed for children who live in rural areas. In the semi-arid region, in which 13 million children live, more than 70% of children and adolescent are classified as poor. These inequities are the major obstacle to reach the Millenium Developmental Goals by the country. A good example is the MDO 4, about the decrease of infant mortality rate. Brasil achieved the goal, however the inequity is there: poor children have more than double chance to die, comparing to rich children and black children 50% more than white children.The rate of not notifying birth has dropped substantially but it is still high in the Northern (15%)and Northeastern (20%) regions. Under nourishment among children less than a year of age has diminished in more than 60% in the last years, but there are around 60 thousand children who are undernourished. Take education, only 28% of them are in nursery and 90% in pre school. We won the battle against mortality due to infectious diseases before 1 year of age, but we are loosing battles against domestic and social violence and car accidents. The death poll has increased for these reasons.

In summary the biggest challenges facing children are these and for the country it is to bridge the gap between intention and action and really put early childhood as a priority as it is in our Constitution and our legal framework.

BRAZIL Vera Lucia Anselmi Melis Paolillo

Strengthening the funding of basic education creation of the Basic Fund for Maintenance and Development of Education and Fundeb Education increasing the resources for this level of education. Gradual changes in the promulgation of Laws , Decrees and National Plans Goals toward 2022 Education for all. The early childhood care in Brazil is done by three complementary areas : Health, Education and Welfare . The sector of education, prioritizes care to early childhood Education.Public services :0-5 years 7.590.600. (IBGE) less poverty because of the Familiy support by Federal Gov. Challegens: quality education for teachers graduation and in services.

Canada Glory Ressler

Canada may be at a crossroad concerning the status of children. We have generally good birth weights and breast feeding rates. However, we still have fairly high rates of infant mortality compared to similar countries. Most children in Canada have good developmental and health outcomes. However, there are groups of children (e.g. poor, indigenous, special needs, and immigrant/visible minorities) who are more vulnerable and experience barriers to accessing services. Services provided vary widely and depend on where you are located in the country. Remote/rural areas can include vast geographic service delivery areas and have higher costs of living. There are not enough affordable child care spaces for all families in need, and indigenous communities are under-resourced comparatively. In 2011, around 20% of Canada's population was foreign-born. The vast majority of immigrant families live in one of our three largest cities. Their children are more likely to start school with less-developed skills than their classmates with Canadian-born parents but the gap disappears before the end of elementary school. There were 1,331,530 children living in poverty in Canada in 2012. Furthermore, we are not meeting agreed upon poverty reduction targets. A 2014 report noted that 4 in 10 of Canada’s indigenous children live in poverty. Child obesity rates have increased dramatically in the last few decades, so food insecurity and physical activity is a growing concern. It is also predicted that child mental health issues will also increase significantly in the future. Rates of autism have also increased and their are waiting lists for specialized services of various types. In 2012, the United Nation’s committee on the rights of the child told Canada it needs to “raise the bar” in how it protects the rights of children. Work to promote children's rights and provide opportunities for authentic engagement with the voices of children continues.

There are also multiple service delivery and regulatory changes occurring simultaneously across sectors. Therefore, improvements for children depend on a complex interaction of factors, including integrated and evidence informed service delivery in communities and good policy, planning coordination and community consultation within, and across, all levels of government. Some hopeful signs of change and actual progress has been made recently, although further accountability and a clear strategy is still needed at every level. To be successful, we must all commit to understanding the system and each other and placing children at the centre of our decisions and actions.

Colombia

Marisa Uribe In 2011 Colombia's poor and indigent children under 6 years of age without any attention, summed 2.800.000. Five years later, this number has decreased through the government strategy "De Cero a Siempre" and today we have 1,884,184 children attended. Three very important innovations are the source of our belief that we will keep improving our coverage. First, the program is coordinated by an inter sectorial commission integrated by Presidency, Ministries of Health, Education, Social Prosperity and Culture, National Planning Department and Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, allowing the integration of policies and actions. Second, the Sistema de Seguimiento Niño a Niño, a national tracking system child to child that unifies the statistics from all official organisms uncharged of ECC and allows a realistic identification and state of the art, of every child under 6 years and the services they receive. And third, finally as a priority for Colombia, underway in the Senate of the Republic is the State Policy Project for the integral development and education of early childhood. The goal is to turn this project into state law, it is in is last debate and it will ensure the coordination of public and private actions in favor of children in Colombia.. In addition to these achievements is the enactment of the Law on Children and Adolescents of 2006, that has strengthened the rights of children in Colombia, allowing decisive actions against the scourges of child’s labor and sexual exploitation, ensuring their rights to obtain civil protection and the disengagement of the armed conflict. It is relevant to annotate the determinate role of civil society in the promulgation of these laws in favor of early children, particularly ONG’s and Corporate Foundations. We have come a long way since 2006, but still our statistics indicate that more than 2.4 million children under five are vulnerable; of that total, 34% are affected by multiple effects of poverty, not having access to the supply of services to ensure their integral development and early education. Keeping our pace with no interruption is our lemma.

Congo, Democratic Republic of Gabriel Marcel Ikopi Moleko

More than 10,000 children live in pauvreté.Ces children face many challenges: no education, no healths care appropriate bases, bad power supplies etc ...

Czech Republic Markéta Literová

Maternity leave 2, 3 or 4 years, growing number of obese children, 93% pre-school education, aprox. 7% children living in poverty, good health care, social care with blind places. In my opinion there are not available services that can help poor children from not challenging environment to start their education early (services for families, parents, children). There is not much progress in their chance to go successfully through educational system, state supported system of early services for disabled children (home care), number of kindergartens, that are child centered and inclusive, is slowly growing, primary school quality differs, there is still a big number of children in institutional care (10000 children), strong dependence of children in education on the social status of the family.

Denmark Helle Nebelong

According to the Ministry for Children, Education and Gender Danish municipalities have a duty to provide a space in an age-appropriate day care for all children aged from 26 weeks until school start. I think one of the biggest challenges is that children spend too much time in daycare centers and school. We’re talking about the institutionalized childhood. That worries me a lot. The famous Danish scientist Erik Sigsgaard says: “Previous generations first met an adult regulated world when they joined school at the age of 6-7 years. Today children often begin their career as institutionalized already at the age of seven months. When today's children celebrate their freedom after having completed secondary education at the age of 18-19, they have in the backpack 25,000-30,000 hours spent in institutions”. That's according to Sigsgaard a huge increasing. If you just look one or two generations back, the number of hours spent in daycare centers and school was around 7,000-10,000 hours. And now the new school reform increases time in school all over the country and throughout the years in the school. A very serious problem is that in recent years there has been savings again and again in nurseries and kindergartens, which means that the number of staff and also the number of proffesional staff has gone down to a level of irresponsibility. In a new survey early childhood educators were asked how they experienced time where they were alone with a big group of children.

• 89% experience to be alone with the pedagogical responsibility for a children's group. • 76% were on a random day in April alone with the total group of children. • 61% are by their meeting schedule alone with the total group of children at a time between 8

am and 4 pm. • 39% have in recent years been in a situation where they felt that it was irresponsible or even

dangerous. Almost a quarter of a million people in Denmark live in poverty today. Among these are 67,000 children. In 2002, the number of children was 42,000. There has been a growth in the number of poor children in almost 60 per cent. Among the 62,000 long-term poor are the 16,000 children. In 2002, the number was fewer than 9,000 children, and the number of long-term poor children has therefore increase over 7,000 children, representing an increase of almost 85 per cent.

Ecuador Etienne Moine

In Ecuador many children live in poverty. It is difficult to give statistics but probably more than 50 % live in poverty and more than 10% in extreme poverty. Officials information says that the situation of children is better than some years ago, but we have many doubt about this . The governments make many changes in education but the quality of attention is very poor. a recent study by BID ( banco interamericano de desarollo )confirm that infrastructure improve but attention is very poor

Ecuador Paolina Vercoutere

Si bien existe una cada vez mayor preocupación por parte del Estado en asegurar que los niños del Ecuador puedan ejercer sus derechos, sobre todo en el acceso a la educación básica, existe aún mucha desigualdad en la calidad de ésta. Las desigualdades económicas hacen que los niños pobres, indígenas y afro ecuatorianos del campo tengan una educación aun deficiente, lo que limita las opciones para su acceso a una vida mejor. Los niños indigenas y afroecuatoriano son los mas pobres como consecuencia de las desigualdades estructurales presentes en la sociedad ecuatoriana y que son el resultado de la colonización. Otra de las preocupaciones grandes que tenemos como sociedad es la permanencia de la violencia en los hogares, a pesar de las campañas que se han promovido para posicionar el Buen Trato como una de las condiciones para que los niños se desarrollen bien. Las familias, los medios de comunicación, el sistema de educación adultocentrico hacen uso de un tipo de autoridad vertical y basada en el miedo, donde los niños y adolescentes difícilmente pueden expresarse o desarrollar con libertad su personalidad. Existe, en ele Estado, la familia y las instituciones educativas una gran directividad que no deja paso al desarrollo de la autonomía y creatividad . Otro de los grandes problemas es la persistencia del embarazo adolescente en nuestro país, problema que se mantiene al no existir políticas firmes sobre educación sexual desde el Estado. A pesar de los esfuerzos realizados desde el 2012, donde el Estado elevo "la Infancia Plena" como política de alta prioridad nacional para bajar los niveles de desnutrición en nuestro país, aún no hemos podido cerrar las brechas, sis bien se ha invertido recursos económicos para atender en centros infantiles para la primera infancia donde se ha alimentado a los niños. Las principales causas para esta realidad son las debilidades en la provisión de los alimentos (calidad), los retrasos en los pagos, la ausencia de agua de calidad en las comunidades.

Fiji Islands

Analesi Tuicaumia 1. Are necessary services available for all children?

• Yes. In 2015 Government introduced free tuition for 5 year olds. • Despite this initiative of government, we have found that in some disadvantaged

communities where only one parent work, children are still left at home –hence the birth of Mobile kindy unit Fiji.

• In 2015 the list of graduates from Mobile kindy Unit Fiji was 55 in total – within one city. • In 5 years to come we would be reaching out to the next cities and towns. • The Ministry of Education is now paying a lot of attention in the rural areas. • There are now 630 recognized ECE Centres in the country. • Centres are assisted by the Government through salary grants, building funds and materials

such as teaching and learning resources. • In 2007, the MoE developed an ECE policy and plans are underway to integrate ECE centres

with primary schools within the same vicinity. • No indication of issues related to access, delivery and the quality of programmes. • Provision of ECE centres is heavily skewed toward urban areas.

2. What portion of children are living in poverty?

• More than 180 squatter or informal settlements exist in Fiji • An estimated 125,000 people or about 15% of Fiji’s population live in squatters • About 100,000 people can be found along the Suva-Nausori corridor(close to Suva) • These settlements generally lack the basic amenities of clean water, electricity and

sewerage systems. (NZAID, 2011). • About 24% of 5 year old located in Suva main business centre • Less than 5% in the Eastern division-outer islands and remote areas • A need for government to provide more support to ECE in the remote islands and so ensure

that children are not deprived of quality primary education readiness 3. What are the biggest challenges facing children?

• Parents and adults lack of knowledge on the importance of early years 0 – 8 years. • Access to high quality early care and education • Access to healthy food, nutritional needs, water and sanitation • Climate change and its effects –more sunshine leading to lack of root crops • Urban migration – lack of sanitation since they leave in squatter settlements

References:

• Children in Fiji : 2011 –An Atlas of Social Indicators • http://www.unicef.org/pacificislands/Fiji_Equity_Atlas_Web_version.pdf

Finland Eeva Hujala

• ECE programs for all children 1-5 years.

• Free Preschool for 6 year old children • Free primary school beginning from 7. • No children in poverty because comprehensive social service • Privatization of children's services

Ghana Ebenezer Lartey

These are my expert views as a practitioner of early childhood care and education in Ghana and also as a Global Leader. I operate a Model Child Care Program in a middle-to-low income community in Accra. In my opinion, services needed by children are not adequate in Ghana at present. Health: In Accra, we have only one dedicated public children’s hospital. Although the hospital has well trained and skilled medical officers, the needed tools to provide quality service are in short supply (basic medical consumables are in short supply). Play: We do not have well planned children playgrounds in our communities. Children are allowed to move around freely to explore. Education: There are different classes of families in Ghana; These classes produce different groups of children. We have the low, middle and high income families; and these family groups have different appreciation of childcare/development needs. Ghana has a number of private and public early childhood education centers. But the private centers dominate. In the quest to improve school enrollment in the country, the Government of Ghana has introduced a number intervention for basic education. We have a policy of Free Compulsory Basic Education. However, parents have to pay fees to get their children into basic schools. Some families are unable to afford the fees; some also do not see the need to school their children who are yet to attain 5 years. Thus, in my opinion, necessary services needed by children are in short supply in Ghana. There is a lot more work to be done. More children advocates are needed. Poverty: Poverty in Ghana - the least said, the best. Although the Governments is making efforts to improve the livelihoods of the it’s citizens, poverty is still high in the country. Government has a number of interventions to reduce poverty: Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty, LEAP – with this policy the State actually gives money to the rural poor. There’s also a school feeding program, free school uniforms, free sandals and many others. However, there are families that cannot afford three meals in a day. According to the Ghana According to UNICEF, Ghana almost halved its poverty rate from 51.7% in 1992 to 28.5% in 2006, putting it on track to achieve the MDG 1 target by 2015. However, income disparities have worsened, with poverty deepening for those worse off. Health service is the biggest challenge for children.

India Reeta Sonawat

Today, children between 0-8 are receiving services that they require for basic survival. Intially, the quality of these services were debatable but now with change in time the quality has remarkably

improved. A good part of the population is living in poverty and they are those who require these survival services the most and with good assistance from various organizations they are able to access these services. Many organizations that are NGO's or government initiated and also private institutions that are educational in nature are working extensively to help them and make them healthy and also provide a sustainable environment for their growth and development. Even the government is providing policies and their implementation is an accountable reason in the upliftment of these children. Along with the non-goverment and government organizations, private institutions like universities are giving out courses in Early childhood education which is increasing the availability of knowledgeable and skilled professionals in this area who are dedicated to make a positive shift in the gradually improving condition of the 0-8 years old's.

India Ganesh Upadhyay

There has been steady progress in the last few decades on child development and learning outcomes for children in 0-6 and 6-14 age groups by launching various programmes schemes and provisioning better. The IMR /MMR indicators have improved significantly though the targets of MDGs/SDGs are at an approachable distance. However the resource cut and crunch in the present financial year and may be next year ,as appears from the annual budget passed by the parliament, is reduced significantly. This may hinder the steady progress made so far . There is urgent need to enhance the budget allocation to HRD to 6 % of GDP. The implementation of Right to Education act has not been impressive at all rather there appears to be only paper work and legal provisioning , no enforcement of the act in its real spirit. The child protection related institutions are not equipped properly with adequate human resources and provision for protection has not been utilized as needed. Child care facilities for working mothers are still far away from the actual demands in the country. The upgrading of anganwadis (child development centers under ICDS(integrated Child Development Services) as was proposed in National Policy on Education 1986 still remains a statement of intention for implementation. Though its implementation has again been reiterated in National Policy for Children 2013.

Iran Mehra Jalili

I think in my country the necessary services are not available yet for most children. Although the Welfare Organization, which most of the early learning centers work under their supervision tries to some extent, there is still a lot to be done in order for people to become convinced that early intervention really matters. There are also many NGOs trying to help children but that too is far from enough.Ì think lower class families who have more children can not afford even medium to high quality ECE and still do not realize the importance of it. Talking about the portion of children living in poverty is not easy because poverty is a multidimensional aspect. However some statistics talk about 20 to 30 percent of children live under poverty. I think the biggest challenges are:

• Not enough budget allocated to early childhood education • Being born in a poor family • Child labor • Political difficulties that affect all the aspects of people lives • Unclear statistics that make interventions difficult • parents divorce • parents not having enough information about the role of ECCE in the success of children in

school and life.

Iraq Hasan Baiee

The current status of young children 0-8 years is miserable . The essential and basic needs for the majority of them are not available.The up dated information declared by both the Iraqi ministry of socoial affairs and the ministry of planning 30% of children are living below the poverty line, international and local NGOs estimated that the proportion may be higher than the above mention rate. The biggest challenges facing our children in this age group are categorized into the following categories : 1. political instability due to unhealthy conflicts and computations between political groups based on ethnic ,religious divisions and ideologies , these led to inefficient legislations and poor monitoring of governments programs this path the way for disastrous corruption which was reflected negatively on all services in iraq including the essential minimum needs of young children 2. Economic status : which was deterorirated due to reduction in the price of crude oil ( the economy and resources of Iraq government depend in about 93& on oil export) , this rapid collapse in the financial resources affected directly the family income due to rising un employement rate and high inflation , the prices of food raised , parents who suffered from poverty will be unable to send their children to the kindergartens or to public or private elementary schools 3. Detoriaration in early education infra strucure and the limited number of teachers in early year educatin and care , overcrowded clases in public kindergartens and the expensive services in the private sector 4. poor health care services for this sensitive age group that suffers from diseases of malnutrition, infectious diseases such as measles , mumps , chickenpox . this year a large number of them exposed to mumps, viral infection (explosive epidemic ) strikes tens of thousands of children in this age group last year thousands of children were diseased with cholera, the increasing incidences of the preventivable infectous diseases due to poor primary health care service, very poor school health services . The partially collapse health system together with illiteracy and poverty lead to high morbidity and mortality 5. Iraqi population is rapidly growing about 18% of our population are early years children ( high fertility rate) , family planning services are very poor

6. poor performance of the limited numbers of local NGOs

Israel Anat Bar

In Israel there are some goverment ministeries that treat children: Health, Education and walfare. I belive 140,000 children are born in Israel every year. Most of them can reach health services and educational services. 30% concider poor children and akmosh 500,000 are at risk families. Poor families can reach welfare services and early childhood education. Day cares are from 3 months to 3 years. Kindergarten are 3-6 years old.

Italy Aldo Fortunati

Italy is a Country which has a low fertility rate (1.37) - more than the average in the EU. This portends a trend of demographic decline in the next 15 years, also confirmed by the increase in life expectancy (85 for women and 80 for men) and by an aging index (over 65 years of under14 year olds) more than 150. Generally speaking, the national health service provides universal care. So - if we think of the child mortality (0.3%) and of deaths from violent causes (1.6%) – the welfare indicators for the younger children are very positive. If - as said before - the health conditions of children are largely guaranteed, the stop in the recent years in the economic development indicators (GDP) have gone together with an increase of the indicators on absolute (8.4%) and relative (16.7%) poverty, generally exposing the new generations to the consequences of a depletion of opportunities. In this framework, a special mention has to be deserved to educational services for children and primary education. Currently, before compulsory education which starts at 6 years old, the education services cover all children from 3 to 5, and 25% of children from 0 to 2 – of which especially the 2 years olds – and the coverage is highly diversified from Center-North (around 30% with peaks of over 35% in Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Umbria) and the South (generally less than 15%). National reforms have been under scrutiny since a long time – but still unfulfilled – aiming to extend universal access to education services also to the first years of life. This could have positive consequences for the women’s employment rate – still at around 50%, well below the European average of 64% - also resulting in a overall positive impact on the Country’s economic development. Summing up, policies have fortunately led to generalize good health conditions for the children, but the rise of poverty indicators and the connected increase in the risks of social exclusion are linked together in vicious cycle and are opening up to a sharper focus and measures on social disease, instead of the promotion of rights and potentials. The challenge is confirmed to be that of expanding the recognition of rights through active promotion, recovering an often fragmented social spending into investments which start from a greater attention to children, thus offering a better quality to the Country’s future welfare.

Jamaica Ceceile Minott

In Jamaica, children born since 2009 have more than 97% chance of surviving beyond the age of 5 years and almost 100 % enrollment in pre and primary school. The population is very young with 33% being children below the age of 12 and more children live in rural areas even though over 50% of the population live in urban areas. In 2010, 21.94% of our children lived in poverty. In 1999, Jamaica embarked on a comprehensive review of the legislation relating to children and the following were established:

• The Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA), passed in 2004; sets universal standards for the care and treatment of children.

• The Early Childhood Commission Act, passed in 2003; governs the administration of early childhood care, education and development in Jamaica.

• The Early Childhood Act of 2005, prescribes the regulatory powers of the Commission and sets standards for all early childhood institutions.

• The Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Suppression and Punishment) Act 2007; enacted to prohibit all forms of trafficking in persons, including women and children, and related offences.

• The Early Childhood Commission was established in 2003 as the main coordinating and monitoring body of the early childhood development sector in Jamaica.

• The Child Development Agency (CDA) was created to achieve the holistic development of children through the creation, implementation, coordination and regulation of programmes and policies which meet Jamaica's obligations to international standards for children. The agency has statutory responsibility for children in need of care and protection.

• The Office of the Children’s Advocate was established in January 2006, to protect and enforce the rights of Jamaican children and promote their best interests at all times.

• The Office of the Children’s Registry opened in 2007 as an institution to receive, record, and store reports on all forms of reported child abuse, abandonment and neglect.

• The National Parenting Support Commission Act, passed in 2012; prescribes the regulatory powers of the Commission.

• The National Parenting Commission was established in 2013 as the main coordinating and monitoring body of parenting and parenting support.

I believe that the biggest challenges facing our children today are: 1. The weakening of the family and community support as many parents leave the island to seek employment overseas and the children are often left with proper guidance and protection. 2. The level of crime and violence in our society which impacts negatively on the children.

Jamaica Olivia Wilmot

Jamaica continues to boast high early childhood enrolment rates and high immunization rates as well. However, exposure to violence, poverty (one half of all persons in poverty, which is appx 20% of the

population), lack of adequate social support services for families and children, and compromised nutrition (beginning with low exclusive breastfeeding rates) continue to represent major challenges. Developmental delays and emotional disorders are a growing concern now officially being monitored. Services for hildren and families which do exist are often underfunded, lacking cultural relevance/meaning, in need of review, available for only a few, or any combination of the four. Literacy, numeracy and conformity continue to be of prime value in the classroom. Developmentally appropriate practice continues to be rare. The intelligent, shining and resilient spirit of Jamaica's children and the efforts of many continue to keep the hopes of the nation alive, however, there appears to be a slip between what science shows about education and development and what is practiced by institutions. Fundamental questions must be asked if we are to overcome this seemingly invisible barrier to the leaps in progress that we ought to be seeing. In this way teacher training, family support, school services and experiences can be made more effective. A legislative framework and statutory body exist, several centres are established, and data is being gathered, all with great potential, but there remains much work to be done. Without major innovation, scientifically based approaches and honest reviews regarding effectiveness at all levels, it is unlikely that the situation of Jamaica's children will change dramatically in the next five years though it may change somewhat.

Kenya Leonard Chumo Falex

In Kenya, there are are big steps in the direction of improved Early Childhood Development. The devolved system of government has given the county government responsibility over ECD and communities feel empowered to manage ECD initiatives. The first lady's "Beyond Zero" campaign is targeted at reducing maternal and child mortality to zero and this has also been a big instrument in creating awareness for investment in ECD to the government and the people. There are also many initiatives going in the country at the moment to raise the profile of ECD. Notably is Care for Child Development spearheaded by WHO, Unicef and the government of Kenya. There is an ongoing curriculum review that will see additional emphasis on the significance of developmental domains and what relevant developmental stimulation is required. The Kenya National ECD Policy Review is underway. Key in the policy is inclusion, quality of services, teacher training, parent and community involvement, child protection and nutrition. The fight against malaria and measles is at its best and we are proud at the efforts in the past many years for the fruits yielded. The formation of Kenya ECD Network is also underway and we are excited that this will help raise the voice for children and mobilize stakeholders to a common effort for children. Challenges that remain include the substantial number of children still unable to access ECD services (especially education). It is estimated close to 40% of children are still out of school. Emergency preparedness remains a challenge where children fall victims during natural calamities and human conflicts. Inadequate funding pose another challenge to the betterment of children lives. Inadequate clean water for all children remains unfinished business in most parts of the country.

The non-state actors have populated the air with advocacy messages on the need for investment in Early Childhood Development and we look forward to and increased engagement in ECD by many more stakeholders moving forward.

Kenya Henry Manani

The Kenya constitution which come into being in 2010 devolved the care and education services for the 0-8 years old from the national government to the county governments.This arrangement has been taken on very seriously by the 47 county governments;a lot of infrastructure and resources are being developed very fast through well thought out encouraging strategic planned programs .These programs include the provision of funds,human resource,management structures,training,physical facilities,policy development,community education and mobilization to appreciate the importance of the 0-8 yrs old care and education programs.So far to-date all the county governments have done an excellent job. I do believe in the next coming five years as many as 90% plus of the population of this category of children will be covered in the 99% of the counties considering that about a third of these counties are in arid and semi-arid regions with significant population of nomards.

Lesotho Lati Lerotholi

In Lesotho children aged 0-5 years get health services including immunization, free of charge. Stunting has reduced from 39% (2009) to 33% (2014) however there are disparities in terms of geographical areas which still have stunting at higher rates. Under 5 mortality is at 85 per 1,000; Infant mortality rate is 59 per 1,000; Children aged 0-3 years in the factory areas are put in unhealthy day care centres, most of which are surrounded by squalor. Guidelines for these centres are being developed to regulate them. Children aged 3-5 years enroll in pre-schools the majority of which are not free. Free pre-school with free feeding can only be accessed in 57 home-based centres and 245 reception classes. in 2,312 pre-schools education is not free as they are privately owned. Only 34.8% of children access pre-school. Children aged 6-8 years are enrolled in primary school at which a new child centred curriculum is being implemented. The challenge is that not many teachers are trained on it therefore quality implementation is a problem. Education is free and compulsory although there are children who are out of school due to lack of school uniform, transport, parental care as they are orphaned, and due to too a long distance to school especially in the mountainous areas of Lesotho. School feeding is free too. Some children are poor and orphaned and those who are eligible, get a child grant quarterly. There is a Child Protection and Welfare Act of 2011 however, some children still experience gender-based violence, harassment and general abuse. A Child and Gender Protection Unit of Police is available to deal with abused children. Birth registration coverage is not yet 100% but Governments efforts towards that are notable. The biggest challenge facing children is poverty, over 56% live below poverty line, as a result of poverty, some do not go to school at the right time, some do not go to school at all,

some do not get sufficient nutrition and some do not practice hygiene due to lack of soap and other supplies. The other challenges facing children are HIV and AIDS, high child mortality, and the phenomenon of orphan-hood.

Macedonia Suzana Kirandziska

The pre-school education in Macedonia, according to the way this tier is financed and managed, is under the supervision of Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. The Ministry of Education and Science is responsible for developing the curriculum and for the professional development of teachers. There are 52 kindergartens in Macedonia and parents pay around 30 USD fee for food per month for the children that attend state kindergartens. There are also private kindergartens but the price in those kindergartens vary from 100 to 400 USD per month. In the last several years the proportion of three to six-year olds in early childhood education increased (to 34% in 2014); however it is unclear to what extent this is due to declining birth rates rather than increase of facilities or programs. It also remains well under the EU average and targets (95% by 2020). Still, children from rural areas, from non-majority communities and with disabilities remain disadvantaged due to lack of access The Roma population of the country represent the most marginalised group in the country, with the situation of Roma children and women being especially difficult, given their economic and social vulnerability and dependency. Official data on the overall situation stems mostly from the 2002 Census and newer official data are scarce and releases of the State Statistical Office do not disaggregate by ethnicity. Within the scope of the Roma Decade, researchers and CSOs been active in providing information on specific issues and in specific communities, which help in creating the overall picture of the situation of Roma and highlight the main problems they face as inadequate housing and sanitation, lack of quality health coverage and highest mortality rates, poor educational participation and attainment, lack of agricultural land, etc. However, data from different studies are difficult to compare as they often use different methodologies and cover small samples. Different reports present different data on the percentage of Roma living below the poverty line, ranging from 50% to 88% and only 39% of Roma women aged 15-24 have a perception rate of better life. There is an increasing trend of Roma emigration or attempts at emigration to EU countries, which disrupts normal patterns of life and education in the Roma community. The biggest challenge not only for Roma population but many families in Macedonia is poverty and unavailability of the child care services.

Mexico

Ivan Galindo According to an study from UNICEF and CONEVAL, "Poverty and social rights for children and adolescents in Mexico 2010-2012" (www.unicef.org/mexico/spanish/UN_BriefPobreza_web.pdf):

At the time of this study the total population in Mexico was 110 million and from them 41 million were between age 0-17. In this range of age 21.1 million equivalent to 53.8% of children and adolescents between 0-17 live in poverty (41.7% in moderate poverty and 12.1% in extreme poverty). The population 0-8 is 20.9 million and 19% of total population. It is reasonable to assume that for the range 0-8 the percentages will be very similar. The rural and indigenous population are specially vulnerable and their percentage in poverty increases a lot 61.6% and 72.3% respectively. Even though Mexico has grown from 2010 to 2012, 4.3% that did not reflect in the same proportion for the population living in poverty. There were slight improvements in the number of people in extreme poverty. For example, there is a program called community kitchens, that has improve the nutrition for children living in extreme poverty. Educational coverage has improved as well. For the next 5 years I think the prospects for children will stay the same because the economic growth of the country will be only between 2 or 3 percent and there has been many budgetary cuts. Only for the sector in extreme poverty there might be slight improvements. The biggest challenges are in the rural areas and with the indigenous population regarding nutrition, social security and health services. In small rural towns there are not adequate educational and health services for 10% and 20% of the population from 0-17 respectively. Another serious problem is insecurity in certain states in rural areas due to the fights within and against drug cartels. This is not mentioned in the study but is a factor the complicates the situation further.

Moldova Cornelia Cincilei

Despite some improvements in almost all indicators of child well-being in Moldova, there are more visible co-existing inequalities, particularly between the situation of rural and urban children. Most children attend primary schools, at 96% and 99% respectively, but preschool education still lags behind. In rural only 64% of 3 to 5 year-olds benefit from early childhood learning. Children with disabilities and those from ethnic minorities are frequently excluded or discouraged from formal schooling. Child mortality rates are low. There are, however, shortages of qualified medical staff in rural areas, and many families have to pay for medicines out of pocket, which is prohibitive for the poor. “Parent drain” is a major feature of family life in Moldova. One in five children has one or both biological parents working abroad, with the middle class being the most affected. Children left behind end up being cared for by their grandparents, extended family members or, in some cases, live on their own. Migration of a parent or caregiver has both positive and negative effects - the transfer of remittances may provide better living conditions for the children left behind, yet the absence of parents is emotionally challenging and may lead to lack of care and the increased likelihood of risky behavior. Putting children into residential care, especially children from poor families and children with disabilities, was a common practice in the past. This is rapidly changing - the number of institutionalized children has halved between 2007 and 2013, still the mainstream educational institutions are not quite prepared to ensure good quality inclusive education. There was an increase in the use of family-based alternatives/ foster care.

Poverty is a predominantly rural phenomenon: it is four times higher than in urban areas. It also disproportionately affects larger families. Families with three or more children remain the most vulnerable to poverty – the rate for this category is 35% compared to 10% for families with one child. In rural areas, only 81% people use safe sources of drinking water, compared to 96% in urban areas. Only 61% of rural household vs. 85% in urban areas use adequate sanitation. Children from the Roma communities and children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable, experiencing social exclusion and poor access to basic services. Growing up in Moldova still carries risks of violence and abuse.

Montenegro Biljana Maslovaric

Preschool education in Montenegro is structured in 0-5 years, and primary school 6-15 years. I am pre-registered around 30% of children of appropriate age and strategy to 2020 is planned enrollment about 90%. The patient is a new three-year strategy (until 2018) and the curriculum is based mainly on the Step by Step methodology program. The main problem is the lack of new facilities for the pre-school education of a group of children are very big around as a group and up to 60 children. The biggest challenge is the inclusion of Roma children (who in addition to economic reasons, unemployment of parents, etc., there a strong language barrier Roma children and teachers are still not introduced into the curriculum enough intercultural pedagogy. Children who are in school and that they have eight years are the so-called first round (of the three). The biggest difference in the cycle refers to the fact that in the first cycle of works by one teacher and the rest of the cycle of subject teachers. The biggest challenge of the whole education system is monitoring and mentoring system that is still not enough well-conceived and consistently implemented. It is also the biggest challenge the inclusion of Roma children and kept them in school until the end of primary school.

Nepal Dhirendra Lamsal

Over the past 60 years, Nepal has made remarkable strides towards educating its citizens. Since public education was instituted in the 1950s, the number of facilities has grown exponentially: Adult literacy has jumped from a mere 5% to almost 65.9%. More recently, Nepal has turned its attention to early childhood education (ECE) programs which was firstly incorporated in the “Tenth Year National Plan (1992)” and then in the “Basic and Primary Education Master Plan (1997-2002)”. Likewise, Nepal has developed “Education for All Act/National Plan of Action-2000” under which the Department of Education (DOE) has already established almost 46,000 ECD centers across the country but there is a big question in its quality because of not having an adequate resources and standard to measure it. Most of the state authority has recognized ECD as an extension of formal schooling downward and it is considered all about educating the children. As yet, ECD service for children 0-3 years of age and Transition Age has not been incorporated in any national policies and plans. However, the Ministry of

Health and Population has initiated community based newborn care package program focusing on 0-2 month’s child. Although the DEO of Nepal and other international organizations has provision of parenting education, it is not visible as it has to be. This program provides information on starting and management of an ECD centers and its sustainability aspects but the program deviates to include all young children. The private sectors largely contribute ECD services to children below 8 years by conducting Montessori classes in the urban areas but it is covering only 60% of the total urban population of children. A large number of private sector ECD centers still focuses on textual and numerical knowledge rather than play way and joyful methods, visual activities and friendly environment for holistic development of children. Still, outdoor activities have not been a part of an integrated program package for children. There lacks parenting counseling and home care taker education regarding the holistic development of a child, their developmental milestones and roles of parents and care takers to stimulate early learning and development of the children in home based environment. It has been realized that factors such as – insufficient legal provisions, weak implementation of program activities, deep-rooted poverty, illiteracy, lack of ownership and resources – are amongst the key challenges to early childhood development programs in Nepal.

Nepal Deepak Raj Sapkota

As per the census on population and housing (2011), children aged 0-8 comprises of almost 20% of the total population 26,494,504. Nepal has made significant progress in access to primary education and health outcomes in terms of mortality and morbidity of the children. According to the UNICEF publication entitled "status of world children 2015", Nepal's Under Five mortality rate at 2013 stands at 40 per 1000 live births against 142 in 1990. Similarly, Nepal has registered Two-third decrease in infant mortality rate during the same period. Similarly, 88% of the children have access to clean drinking water and 37% of the children have access to sanitation facilities. More than 92% of the children are covered by immunization package. Almost 82% of the children enter school with prior early childhood learning experience. Despite progressive realization of the rights of children as enshrined in international instruments, these facts deserve our special attention. 29% of the children are born underweight and 41 % suffer from stunting. 82,000 (almost 2% of the school age children) children are still out of schools. Only half of the students enrolled in grade one complete primary schools. Based on 2012 data almost 25% of the population fall under International poverty line of 1.25 $ a day. It is difficult to isolate the actual number of children aged 0-8 years under poverty but empirical evidences suggest that their cognitive and physical growth is substantially hindered owing to poverty. Only 42% of the children have birth registration. The protection and survival of children is threatened due to lack of adequate services and facilities. Disparity exists and it is quite stark in terms of rural urban differences, sex, economic status and social stratification. For example 73% urban women have access to skilled attendant during child birth where as it is available for 32% such women in rural areas. Similarly, underweight prevalence rate under 5 years in urban area is 17% against 30% in rural areas. Such variation is evident in use of sanitation facilities as well; 51% in urban areas against 34% in rural areas. Economic status also determines the

access for services; 40% of the children are underweight among poorest families in comparison with 10% richest children. To conclude, major challenges being faced by 0-8 children are malnutrition, quality education, vital registration adequate care and proper guidance, violence, neglect, economic deprivation, rehabilitation and reintegration of children at risk etc.

Netherlands Betsy van de Grift

At his moment we have a 'split systeem', for daycare (private market, in which working parents are being subsidized by tax refund) and preschools, who are being locally subsidized. In the upcoming years this will be more or less integrated. The aim of this policy is the accessibility for all preschoolers to an early education. In my country the percentage of children living in (relatively) poverty is between 15-20% the four largest cities. As an average for the whole country is it more like 7 % I think.

New Zealand Peter Reynolds

As many as 25 percent – up to about 265,000 New Zealand children – currently live in poverty. Education. There has been a significant drive in NZ to encourage pre-school-aged children (0 to 5) to enrol in ECE. The goal is 98% of children starting primary school have had ECE experience. Currently this sits at 96% - around 200,000 children between 0 and 5. The quality of some services remains a concern, as is the level of compliance burden on services from government (based predominantly on system inputs rather than outputs or outcomes). Funding is complex and requires simplification. A "refresh" of Te Whaariki (the national ECE curriculum) is planned. Finally, effort is being put into a more managed transition between ECE and primary schooling, although this is in its early stages. Welfare: The recent introduction of the Vulnerable Children's Act will also influence vulnerable children, aiming to address poverty, abuse and access to support. One of the key features of this legislation is a combined-agency approach to identifying and meeting the needs of children. A remaining area of concern is children with special needs (disability, mental health needs, challenging behaviours). Education has substantially failed to ensure appropriate supports are in place with significant bottle necks and waiting lists. A major review is underway. Health: A major immunisation initiative is underway to life numbers, particularly for those children living in poverty and in lower socio-economic communities. Greater effort is being put into earlier health screening, although inter-agency cooperation and information sharing remain problematic.

Nigeria

Margaret Akinware The State of the World’s Children (2015), stated Nigeria with a population of 173, 615,350 has an under 18 year old population of 87,991,680: a slightly more than half (50.66%) the total population is children. Out of this number, 30,543,270 are under-5, representing 17.6% of the total population, and a 34.7% of all under 18 year old children in Nigeria. As many as 68% of the population live below the international poverty line of US1.25 per day. Infant Mortality Rate has steadily reduced from 126 in 1990 to 74/1,000 live births in 2013 with a Neonatal Mortality Rate of 37. Crude birth rate is 41.25 while the crude death rate is 13.20. Every day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year old children and 145 women of childbearing age. 38% of delivery care takes place under skilled birth attendants, 36% in various institutions while there occurs 2% caesarian sections. Preventable or treatable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles and HIV/AIDS account for more than 70 per cent of the under-5 mortality rate of 117 /1,000 live births. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of morbidity and mortality of a more than 50 per cent deaths of these children, only 17% of children are exclusively breast-fed. 31% of under-5 year old children are underweight, 36% stunted, 18% wasted and 5% are overweight. Vitamin A supplement is 70% while 80% children are adequately iodized. Nigeria is the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal rate in the world. Appreciable progress was made in ECE during the last decade due to government policy requiring every public school to have a pre-primary school linkage, total attendance rate is 43%, (male =42%, female= 43%), while gross enrolment ratio is only 13% male and female respectively.Of the poorest 20%, only 10% children attend ECD/pre-primary compared with 84% of the richest 20%. Challenges and Solutions:

• Though a pregnant woman’s chance of dying is 1 in 13, less than 20% of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care. KAP on pregnancy and childcare are being upgraded.

• Capacity building of health personnel, upgrading of health centres/ hospitals and promotion of partnership among public & private hospitals, relevant health agencies and government are ongoing.

• 85% ECD personnel has no basic qualifications and more than half have no formal education. • There are poor infrastructure, equipment, facilities and learning resources in most facilities. • The national curriculum is not yet widely operational. Training on-going.

Oman, Sultanate of Muna AL-Siyabi

Early childhood education services is limited for some children who are in good social economic statue. The services are just available in some areas of the country. We have qualified graduates but the government didn't provide jobs for them because they don't want to pay high salary for them, so the one who is teaching children just have third secondary certificate.

My main concern actually are children with disabilities. We have very poor services and they are very limited. they are just available in Muscat (the center of the country) and they are very expensive. many people can not afford it. We didn't have qualified staff in the field of early childhood special education. No accurate diagnosis, no early intervention, no educational services!!!! the biggest challenge the lack of high quality institution for example kindergarten.

Peru Martha Llanos

Peru has a total population of 28 million and almost 15% of them are children between 0 to 8 years old. Currently there is a great awareness of the importance of the early years of life, this is the result of many years of advocacy. However in spite of a recognized economic growth in the country there is a big percentage of children that live in poverty this is specially valid for rural area and disadvantage urban slums and also the indigenous communities that are making many efforts for their inclusion and for taking into account their language identity. Education continue to increase their budget for small children the coverage from 0to 5 years is 83% (MOE data2015), however services for 0 to 3 are showing growing efforts. Initial steps towards a more comprehensive view and relation with Primary education. The increment in budget is significant but their use is mainly for improvement or new infrastructure. The situation of children living in extreme poverty is also startling, with rates reaching 27% for children ages 0 to 5 years. From health aspects it is alarming the level of anemia and malnutrition affecting younger children; this is an area that requires more action as it is impacting the learning possibilities of children and parents. Un 50% of children under have have anemia and 28% have chronic malnutrition. As a World Forum National Rep I always insist that we have to see the "face of the numbers" in order to provide a good analysis of the accomplishment of children rights in the country. Statistical data showed that we are increasing access to services and there are many social programmes with solid backgrounds but...QUALITY OF SERVICES...remains as a key issue to solve.

Philippines Denise Zara

Unemployment and underemployment leave a large percentage of families in the Philippines struggling to meet basic needs let alone tuition to send their children to school. Despite this, the nation’s literacy rate is optimistic according to an organization called Children International. Moreover, the trend shows that parents seem to be encouraging their children to continue education and they see this as their only solution out of poverty. The chance for this happening is very slim though as lack of formal education holds them back including lack of skills and not having the best attitude for the workplace. Children often give up and resort to drugs and crimes before they turn 18. Furthermore, child labor is also an issue.

Majority of services are private and non- profit. The biggest department from the government is DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). An estimate of 1.5 million Filipino children live in poverty and they can be seen living or working day and night (begging mostly). Some are runaways, abandoned and driven aways because of abuse. Lack of sanitation, squatters and atmosphere that breed disease, domestic violence and hopelesness. Thats why many children prefer to be in the streets. Its their home and they feel safer here than in their homes.

Poland Monika Rosciszewska-Wozniak

Children aged 0-6 in Poland is 2.8 million, which represents approximately 7% of the entire population Birth rate is decreasing Blocking factors of demographic growth: • The risk of poverty, • The threat of losing their job in the case of child care • Difficulties in returning mothers to work after the completion of maternity leave. • The lack of crèches (for only 1-2% of children) • Not enough places in kindergartens, especially for children from the age of 3 years living in rural areas Health care: Free, regardless of whether the parents are insured or not. Risk of poverty, According to the statistical data (UNICEF) more than 20% of children is at risk of poverty (for 1 person in the family less than 100$ monthly), and about 5% live in extreme poverty. Enabling factors: single parenting, large families, live in the countryside, unemployment. In 2014, more than 10% of families with three children lived below the subsistence minimum (less than 500PLN-120 $ per person per month), and the risk of poverty affected nearly 23% of married couples with four or more dependent children. Care and Education Positive changes in the situation of children in the years 2011-16: 1. Extension of paid maternity leave and parental leave – in practice for about 1 year. (introduces the possibility to care for fathers) 2. Care for 0-3. From 2011 till 2016 day care enrollment for 0-3 y.o. reached from 1%. up to 7%. In 2014, the care institutions-crèches, children's clubs and daycare keepers offered a total of ok. 71.4 thousand places (including approx. 4.7 thousand seats in rural areas), 3. pre-primary education(kindergarten) includes children from 3 years to 7 years. Compulsory primary education applies to children from 7 y.o. Public education to 5 hours a day is free. Each child from 4

years of age should have a guaranteed place in the nursery. There is a problem in ensuring this right in the countryside, Number of places in kindergartens is growing, but slowly. 4. In 2016 introduced financial assistance for children in Poland (Program "500 +). Each of the second and subsequent child in the family (regardless of income) is $ 500 (about $ 120) per month to complete 18 years of age. Grant also to the first child in the family is passed, if the family income is low.

Rwanda Eddy Kalisa

In Rwanda life status of children in 5 years to come will have changed dramatically because current interventions and engagement of all partners . We are advocating policies with government to support and work us to send children to school, as same time to fight poverty and malnutrition in Rwanda villages. We are supporting projects for children where we gone small projects for their families in Rwanda.

Scotland Kenny Spence

Every Child in Scotland from 3- 5 receives 16 hour a week of free childcare. By 2020 this is planned to be 30 hours a week. For children from families on a low income this free childcare starts at 2. For those families in difficulty there are Child and Family Centres where this can start as young as 12 weeks for these families parenting support is also available. The Scottish Government believes that children are our most valuable resource so every child in Scotland will have a named person who is responsible for Getting it Right for Every Child GIRFEC. This named person has a coordinating role to ensure all agencies are involved in the child's plan. The biggest challenge being faced in the future will be recruiting new staff and an increase in the number of facilities required to provide the additional childcare. Additional support is also provide for children with additional needs.

Sénégal Andy Agbein Kings

Senegal is a West African country with a population of around 12 million people, 61% of whom live in rural areas and 51% are children under the age of 16. The country is divided into 11 regions and 34 departments, administered by a central government in Dakar. Just under 50% of children enrol in primary school, of whom only around half actually complete it. This has led to the situation where only 41% of adults are able to read or write.

The main ethnic group in Senegal are the Wolofs, spread across the country, while many other smaller groups are concentrated into more localised regions. 90% of the population are Muslim, with Christianity and Animism making up the remaining 10%. Half the population resides in the urban cities (principally Dakar) and migration from the rural areas continues to augment as a result of long-term drought. A 2012 estimate by the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) indicated up to 120,000 children, mostly talibes (pronounced talibays), were begging across Senegal, representing nearly 1 per cent of the entire population. An estimated 50 000 of these children can be found daily in Dakar scavenging for food, money and materials for their masters. For centuries, children in this deeply Muslim country have been sent away to religious schools (daaras) for an Islamic education. It’s a practice common throughout West Africa. But in modern Senegal – where most talibés are dressed in rags, visibly malnourished and almost completely uneducated – it’s clear that the system is no longer working in their favor. Often with ripped clothes, barefoot and filthy, these children move alone or in packs. Thousands of them spend hours each day walking the city in search of scraps of food and begging for money to meet a daily quota exacted by their `marabouts’ (masters), or face beatings.

Singapore Lily Wong

99% of children from 2 months to 8 years olds are in childcare, kindergarten and primary schools. The local government has been opening up and providing spaces for young children to be in childcare and older children to be in student care-after school care. This is so for all women to work. The infant care is funded up to $600 a month and childcare $300 a month and primary schools is free. those children in disadvantage homes will have the childcare fees all paid for and subsidy for housing to the family. The challenges is to get parents to work and send the children to childcare.

Slovenia Tatjana Vonta

Slovenia made a big progress regarding the enrolment of 1-6 years old children's in ECEC no matter to the fact that preschool education is not compulsory, compulsory education started with age 6. The enrolment rate in ECEC is now days half time higher (47%) that ten years ago, mainly for children from 3-5 years old and the rates are still slowly growing in last years. In this school year (2015/16) 78,1 % of all children younger than 6 years are enrolled in ECEC. The rates for different age groups are different. The enrolment rate for children in age 5 is 92%, so we can say that Slovenia still didn't reach the goal to enrol 95% of children in this age group in ECEC services that European Union strategic documents for 2020 set for EU countries. In total 88,6% of children in age 4, are enrolled in ECEC services, 83,7 % of children aged 3, 69,9% of children in age 2 and 45,1% of children at age 1. Maternity leave in Slovenia ends at child's 11 months. The number of children in age 1-3 is growing very slowly but still more than half of those children are enrolled in ECEC services. At age 6 children are supposed to start compulsory education. In last few years we can observe the trend that parents started to postponed enrolment of their child in primary school for a year which is

according to the low possible. If this kind of trend will continue to be in place it will indicate that something is wrong with the first years of compulsory schooling. We are still coping with enrolment of Romani children in ECEC services. This is especially trough for programs that include parents and very young children (0-3). This is especially important as we are still coping with Romani children frailer in primary school. Due to the social and economic problems we are also coping with children living poverty. The rate of poverty for children in age 0-18 is around 14%, but we don’t have data for children in age 0-8. There are some systemic strategies that support those children but it looks that they are not reaching all the children in need due to different explanation of the low or lack of money. In future we also expect quite a lot of problems in education and care for migrant children.

South Africa Patsy Pillay

The advent of democracy in 1994 in SA led to the reconstruction of early childhood development in order deal with the inequities of the past. The areas for intervention were captured in the definition of Early Childhood Development (ECD) – “an umbrella term, which applies to the processes by which children from birth to nine years grow and thrive, physically, mentally, emotionally, morally and socially” (Department of Education 1995,p.33). In 2008, the South African government identified ECD as a national apex priority . ECD (birth to four years) has emerged as a priority in terms of several government policies and programmes in the past few years, including;

• South African National Curriculum Framework ( 0-4), 2015 • National Early Childhood Policy for South Africa • Policy on Minimum Requirements for Programmes Leading to Qualifications in Higher Education

in Early Childhood Care and Education (Birth – Four) for Educators and Practitioners There are currently 8, 207, 723 million children from birth to 6 years old according to 2015 Mid Year Population estimates. The largest number is in KZN(23%), Gauteng (20%) and lowest in Northern Cape (2%) and Free State (5%).Whilst poverty levels have fallen by 15% since 2004 using the lower bound poverty level of R604 per person per month, about 58% children are still deemed poor, the Burden of poverty is distributed unequally across provinces, majority of poor children are black, living predominantly in rural provinces i.e. Limpopo (76%), Eastern Cape (75%) & KwaZulu Natal (67%). The 2013 National ECD audit found that staff members at ECD centres are largely female and Black African accounting for over 90% of staff. The audit noted further that the majority of registered ECD centres do not have intervention programmes to support children with disabilities. The emphasis is to also address conception to two years , given the empirical research. The purpose of the NATIONAL INTEGRATED ECD POLICY is to provide an overarching multi-sector enabling framework of ECD services. For young children , the intention is to provide a package of services including nutrition, health, social services, early learning, food security, ECD communication, parent support. Whilst we may some excellent policies, unfortunately implementation is the challenge.

Swaziland Colani Magongo

The situation of children in Swaziland is slightly improving compared to recent years. To support this position, one would focus on the Multi Indicator Cluster Survey of 2014: Nutrition Status: Stunting prevalence for children under five in 2014 was at 25.5%, an improvement from 30.9% in 2010. Exclusive breastfeeding for under 6 months was at 63.8 which shows an improvement from a previous 44.1%. Child Mortality: The under five mortality rate, which is the probability of a child dying between birth and the fifth birthday, is 50/1000. while this is still a high figure, it is lower than the previous 104/1000 children recorded in 2010. Child Health: Full immunization coverage is presently at 70.7%. This is a percentage of children aged 12-23 months who received vaccinations recommended in the national immunization schedule. Most of the indicators have gone down from the previous figures. For TB the percentage is 97.5, down from 98.2 % in 2010. Polio immunization coverage is now at 83.9% down from 85%, measles immunization coverage is now at 89.3% down from 97.8%. Based on these figures one could point out that the future of children does not seem as bright as one would want. Child Development: Attendance to Early Childhood Education has dropped from 33% in 2010 to 29.5% in 2014. childen still do not get enough support from parents to help with learning. From the interviewed parents, only 5.9% of all children under five had 3 or more children's books. Literacy and Education: Only 92% of children who entered the first grade eventually reached the last grade. The transition rate to secondary school is at 85.5%. Child Protection: Birth registration is at 53.5% a slight improvement from 49.5%, while 88% of children still experience violent discipline. 20.4% of children have one or both parents dead. States Efforts to Improve Livelihoods of Children: The government of Swaziland has made sure to include ECD in most of its policy documents including the Education Sector Policy and now the government is developing a policy for the o-8 age group. The government is introducing grade zero in public school starting in 2017 with the support of non-state actors and partners. There is a general interest in the public and government on issues of ECDE. There are still some general problems including the fact that 61% of people living in poverty,and the drought situation, which impacts badly on the lives of children.

Tanzania

Arcard Rutajwaha

Tanzania had an average population of 44.9 million (43,625,354 in mainland Tanzania and 1,303,569 in Zanzibar and an average Annual Intercensal Growth Rate (2002 – 2012) of 2.7% (Tanzania mainland (2.7%) and Zanzibar (2.8%). (URT PHC 2012). Now the country has a population of 49.253 Million with 25.241 mil under 18 years and 8.656 Mil under 5 years .The annual growth rate is at 2.86 % for the period of 1990 -2013 and projected growth rate of 2.81 for the period 2013 – 2030; the crude death rate is at 8.52, while the crude birth rate was at 39.15 in 2013. Data indicate also that life expectancy (2013) was at 61.53 and fertility rate (2013) at 5.21; the urbanized population (2013) at 30.20 while the annual growth rate of urban population is at 4.91% (1990-2013) and 4.73% (2013 -2030). For Mainland Tanzania 30,924,116 of the population live in rural areas and 12,701,253 in urban settings,an indication that 70.88% of the mainland population live in rural areas and 29.12% in urban centers. As regards to young children data indicate a population of 7,069,895 children aged 0-4 years (5,392,159 in rural and 1,677,736 in urban centres; 6,475,364 children 5 to 9 years (4,979,659 in rural and 1,495,705 in urban areas. This is an indication of a high urban – rural variations in the population distribution in the mainland Tanzania.With this trend there is a need for taking stern measures that will ensure services for young children reach the majority of those that live in the rural under resourced communities. (BDSEP2014). The reality indicate that most of the services for young children especially private providers are concentrated in urban settings with few community owned services that serve children from poor families. There are however very few private service providers and few community based centres serving the multitude of the population of young children living in rural under resourced communities. By large these children are affected by inadequate services for their survival, growth and development. In all these aspects the issue of adequate quality services( health, nutrition, early learning, safety and protection remain a challenge in the absence of implementable quality standards for ECD service provision and increased government investment in young children at their early years. Through government decision to invest more in social services including health and education, life for young children may improve in near future.

Thailand Sheldon Shaeffer

I'll use this space to make another plea. Much neglected are the "left behind" children -- left behind, usually with grandparents, when their parents migrate to cities or abroad. There are said to be 60 million in China, 8-9 million in the Philippines, 3 million in Thailand, and an uncounted number in countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia. Grandparents may love their grandchildren, but in general they do not have the knowledge about health, nutrition, and cognitive/psycho-social development which the more educated generation of (absent) parents have. They have less energy, tend to spoil their charges more, motivate them less to attend and excel in school, are likely less literate and more responsive to superstition and fundamentalist, nativist movements, and simply do not have the skills and knowledge which we assume caregivers of young children must have. Few researchers are looking at this problem systematically, but the implications of this phenomenon are immense for ECD

programmes and primary schools which must make up for the lack of informed parenting - and often caregivers other than parents are left out entirely of "parent education" programmes.

Trinidad and Tobago Kalifia Constantine

At present, the status of children in Trinidad and Tobago is managed by several bodies (the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Children's Authority, the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services and the Office of the Prime Minister, through its Gender, Youth and Child Development arm). However, there is not enough cooperation among these bodies and insufficient legislation to support drastic improvements in the near future. The Children's Authority has been charged with the role of guardian of the nation's children and is guided by the often controversial Children's Act (2012). See all children's legislation here: http://www.ttchildren.org/legislation/package-of-children-s-legislation Within the Trinidad and Tobago context, the care of children from birth to eight years of age is catered for within different settings:

• 0 – 2: at Nurseries or Day Care facilities • 3 – 4: at Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Centres (pre-schools) • 5 – 6: at infant 1 and Infant 2 of the primary school • 7 – 8: at standard 1 (locally referred to as First Standard or junior level of the primary school).

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) which caters for the under 5 age group, is not compulsory, neither is it part of the formal education system, but steps are being made to provide universal access to quality ECCE services. According to the Education Act (1966) Primary education is compulsory from age 6. To date, accurate and sufficient statistics are unavailable for this age segment; but the overall poverty rate is 16.7%. While education and health care services are free and readily available, several factors play into the inequitable distribution of quality standards and the persistence of challenges for young children. Among the major hindrances of early years are the limits of our colonial-style education system that has not evolved to meet the needs of a 21st century state. There is also a need for greater and more strategic holistic development approaches to childrearing (including community and parental education).

Turkey Ebru Aktan Acar

In Turkey, a total of 27,793 early learning units currently provide nationally for 1,209,106 children, The great majority (1,135,575 children) attending 23,508 urban preschools with 73,731 children in 4,285 rural institutions. Overall (2015-2016) net attendance ratios indicate 98.81% of children in the 6-9 age group, 55.48% of five year olds, 42.96% of 4-5 year olds and 33.26% of those aged 3-5 attend school, with only slight variances in gender distribution percentages in favour of boys.

Provision in 2015-2016 consists of state-run early learning units, preschools both independent (2,326) and integrated within primary, intermediate and high school institutions (20,061), as well as just over 3,000 MONE-affiliated private independent pre schools (2,322+931 other), and seasonal and mobile schools for early learners (aged 4-5). Institutions catering for infants and toddlers include officially regulated workplace creches (ages 0-3), community-based (municipality, private non-profit association) centres and kindergartens, private, minority and international infant and child learning centres (1,385) affiliated to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, and (56) Religious Affairs Ministry courses for 4-6 yr. olds opened under statituary code: No.657/191. (National Education Statistics, 2015-2016) Although school attendance among five year olds appeared to double between 2005-2013, this is mainly due to the reshuffling of the basic education system through the 4+4+4 (year group) framework introduced in 2012 whereby 32% of five year olds were included, by requirement, in official primary schools attendance records, and does not represent a rise in preschool attendance. The fact that school enrollment for the 3-4 age groups is lowest among the OECD countries pinpoints the need for a more collaborative, all-embracing multi-stakeholder approach to address the crucial issue of early childhood education in Turkey. Clearly, more comprehensive research into a full range of the sociological and economic factors effecting preschool attendance in Turkey, inclusive of such items as family / employment status and early childhood care needs may more-effectively inform the development of future policies. The biggest challenges facing children are access to quality early education as a sound start in order to step up with the appropriate skills as future citizens within the global knowledge economy; future employment challenges in face of local demographics and economic fluctuations; coping with economic restraints, schooling quality, inequality in provision distribution, teacher–student ratio, Quality and reach of preschool teacher provision (limited resources challenge), social perceptions/family values. References: National Education Statistics, 2015-2016. TEDMEM 2015, Education Evaluation Report.

Uganda Hajara Ndayidde

• Percent of women attending four or more antenatal care visits during their pregnancy - 48

(2011) • Percentage of children age 12-23 months who received all basic vaccinations (BCG, measles, and

three doses each of DPT and polio vaccine; excluding polio vaccine given at birth) at any time before the survey – 52% (2011)

• % of pregnant women receiving ARVs for EMTCT – 72% • Infants <6 months exclusively breastfed (%) – 53% (2011) • Children 6-23 months who receive a minimum acceptable diet – 16% • Percentage of children under 5 years with iron deficiency anemia – 49% • % underweight among non-pregnant women aged 15-49 (BMI less than 18.5 kg/m2) – 12% • Households using an improved sanitation facility (%) – 16% • Households with hand-washing facilities with soap and water (%) – 27%

• % of children under five whose birth is registered – 30% • % of ever-married women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by any

husband/partner in the past 12 months – 35% • Data on early learning and stimulation services for children aged 0–3 years is not available. • The net attendance ratio for pre-primary education is 23 per cent for boys and 24 per cent for

girls. • Major constraints to the uptake of ECD services include: low national access, with a distribution

skewed towards urban areas, few trained teachers, and lack of clarity around appropriate curricula for and limited awareness of ECD.

Uganda Ronald Ssentuuwa

Uganda has the fastest growing population (with high fertility rates of mothers) in the world standing at 6:1 children by women.Though there has been a reduction in mortality in the past decades, the government has recognized the need to ensure child development beyond survival. Currently there is lack of services that focus on a child between 0-3 years though health program like ANC, FP, among others exist to ensure giving birth to health child. Their development to their fullest potential is the government focus in the next strategic plan and vision 2040. Currently the government of Uganda has through the parliament approved the national integrated ECD policy which will guide implementer, in addition to the national development plan and programme based budgeting for ECD. It is assumed this will improve service delivery in ECD and efforts are in place to establish ECD secretariat in the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development to ensure multi sector programming to ECD services in the country. Uganda has the second youngest population in the world with 48.7% of the population under 15 years of age and about 55.3% below 18 years of the total Uganda’s population which is about 34.2 million people (UDHS, 2011)Approximately 2.43 million children have been orphaned and 51% (8million) are either critically or moderately vulnerable ( NSPPI II 2011/12-2015/16). According to the OVC Situation Analysis Report (2010), only 11% of 8.1 million OVC in dire need were reached with external support services.Child neglect is the second highest case of abuse against children in the ECD age bracket at 3,126 (24%) up from 2,628 cases in 2008 indicating an increment in child neglect by 498 (16%) cases Police Annual Crime Report 2009. Pre- Education which is key for economic returns net enrollment ratio in pre-primary education in Uganda is at 23%. According to the NDP (2010/11 - 2014/15), in 2008, Early Childhood Development (ECD) enrollment stood at only 89,296 yet there were about 3.5 million aged 3-5 years. Every year, about 25,000 Children are born with HIV. Uganda’s HIV prevalence stands at 6.7 in adults and 0.7% in Children. The National Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) database shows that the percentage of infants born to HIV-infected mothers in 2009 stood at 9.9%.

Ukraine Natalie Berg

The biggest challenge for the children in my country is dealing with the effects of war (East of Ukraine and Crimea invaded and occupied by Russia). We have to deal with tragedies, provide psychological

councelling, find a way to house children and families fleeing the war and occupation, provide medical help to traumatized and wounded, provide additional educational resorces. Many children need intervention, we also need to work on developing learning programs to help them to lean Ukrainian language

United States Ellen Drolette

Children are being pushed at a younger age to participate in academics that are not developmentally appropriate. Teachers are under tremendous pressure to teach to an assesment or high stakes test rather than following their lead. Children at the age of 3 are now in public schools, this is concerning. Children need time, space and outside time to develop and learn valuable skills.

United States Kimberly Nall

In the United States, the status for children 0-8 varies depending on where families live, the families experiences, education, support systems, and the resources available. I work in Indian Country (Native American community). The ability and availability to have equal access to resources is a barrier, still. The tribe has many resources that they provide however, there are not a lot of people trained on issues that are relevant to tribal populations, and to the specific population needing services. Children and families tend to isolate themselves, and to protect or discourage their extended families from off reservation services that may not have the knowledge and experience to understand the unique issues of the tribal community. While some of the families do have recent financial viability, often due to gaming revenues, they do not have the experiences and education to support financial planning and managing wealth. The income is often a source to other vices that breaks the family foundation down, and further allows access to toxic environments. The services that are needed are; behavioral health services, drug and alcohol services, violence and sexual assault supports, early education and early intervention, tutoring and school to home liaisons, health services, job training, parenting classes and family and community engagement supports. The biggest challenges facing children are violence, sexual assault, poverty, early intervention and supports for in-home and behavioral health issues.

United States Edna Ranck

In recent years Pres. Obama has spoken of early childhood in State of the Union messages to Congress, the SCOTUS, and the American people. This has generated interest among national columnists, leading politicians, and many in the NGO field. However, the 2016 presidential election promises to be on of the most volatile in our history. The future of ECE in the U.S. will depend on who of the projected nominees is elected. it will either improve somewhat (Democrat) or will get somewhat worse (Republican). The poverty rate continues at about 20%.

Challenges facing children include parental limitations in employment & education; sufficient level of quality programs for infants & toddlers; and too little in-service professional development for teachers & caregivers. Services vary among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. People continue to enter the ECE field and most states offer public school (free) Pre-K. But community-based programs find it difficult to offer to meet the professional needs of teaching staff. ECE professionals must become stronger advocates in their local communities, their states and at the national levels: executive, legislative & judicial. They must vote in the national election in November 2016.

United States Luis Hernandez

During a national election year, the topic of child care is a hot topic; candidates views and support differ by their political positions - should the public support the cost of child care and to what extend ? what is the role of government in the care of its youngest citizens ? what is the role of women in the care of their children ?....these BIG questions drive the political agenda and the public will....the national model of a market oriented system means that families pay an increasing amount at the start of a child's life versus what they may be paying for a college education.....for working class families, there is a limited amount in publicly supported child care systems; the current systems pit families against families in qualifying for subsidies ....

United States

Jerry Parr In the sector that I work most frequently, 0-5 federally funded programs, there has been a tremendous infusion of resources as well as some systemic changes at the federal level designed to make access to care more seamless and universal. I am seeing the beginnings of positive impact on children and families living in poverty as a result. My concern is that with a presidential election looming on the horizon the level of uncertainty brought about by political change (an potentially upheaval) could reverse the fragile forward progress and the agenda could change dramatically

Vietnam Nhung Dao

In Vietnam, during 2001-2010, the rate of school-age children going to school grew fast, from 72% to 98% for pre-school five-year-old children; 94% to 97% for primary school students. A network of educational institutions developed nationwide increased learning opportunities for people, initially forming a learning society. Communes in which children had no access to preschool education no longer existed. All communes have primary schools.Social equity in access to education was improved, especially paying greater attention to ethnic minority people, children of poor families, girls and the disadvantaged. CHALLENGES:

• In Vietnam, social differentiation tends to increase. The rich and poor gap among different population groups and development gap among regions and areas have become increasingly apparent, posing a risk for inequality in access to education and widening the gap in education quality among regions and areas and different types of learners.

• The need for rapid education development to meet the requirements of national industrialization and modernization, development of a knowledge-based economy with advanced technologies and international integration in the condition of limited investment resources for education will pressure education development.

• The risk of lagging behind can increasingly widen the economic, intellectual and educational gaps between Vietnam and other countries. New problems, which have arisen from international integration and market economy development, such as threats of invasion of unhealthy culture and lifestyles that undermine national identity, and poor quality educational services that may pose major risks for education, demand theoretical renewal as well as appropriate practical solutions for education development.

Reference: DECISION 711-APPROVING THE 2011-2020 EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN VIETNAM

Wales Karen Graham

In Wales, poverty is measured in relative terms with 22 per cent of households considered to be living in poverty. Poverty is defined as a household income below 60 per cent of the average household income in Wales. Wales continues to have among the highest levels of child poverty in the UK, according to figures released in 2015, despite high levels of investment. In 2015 323 million pounds was invested in programmes to eradicate poverty. When housing costs have been taken into account the percentage of children living in poverty rises to 31 percent, an overall increase from recent years. Response to this situation is not complacent, sector groups continue to pressure government reform through monitoring and reporting and making recommendations for change to calls for radical reform. In response to concerns about poverty government continues to focus on a range of poverty measures. These measures are overseen by a minister for Community and Poverty and cross-government approach. Government is challenged by, and looks at, a range of poverty measures including: educational, social and emotional, housing and financial poverty. These social and economic indicators, that also focus on disposable household income, will continue to be measured with the aim of ensuring a positive difference is made. The purpose of early intervention is to ensure that, as far as possible, the cycle of intergenerational poverty is broken and life chances are improved for all children. Eradicating poverty in Wales focuses on compensatory investment in early years and early intervention strategies for social and educational reasons alongside reactive interventions such as providing free school meals, job creation and protection, youth support and adult education strategies. Undoubtedly, it is a challenging theme but is one that is being tackled and monitored from many professional and social perspectives.

Zimbabwe

Patrick Makokoro In Zimbabwe it is so often noted that children are either orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS scourge or the other parent works in the city and thus a single parent is the one who is available to be with the children. Children thus are being raised by single parents which is one context that does not support the optimal growth of children. It has become increasingly difficult for communities to provide support to families. Most households mainly depend on crop production and trade, casual labour at farms and petty trade (buying and selling), formal employment, remittances and livestock production. Children within the poor communities of the country typically have to resort to the same means of survival as the adults, thus a lot of children are found as casual farm labourers or hawking in the villages so that they can raise some resources that are then channelled towards their upkeep. The children themselves are then involved in household economic activity geared at ensuring that there is food on the table. The absence of supportive relationships that ensure that young children are raised in a nurturing environment with their family members also affects the growth of the children in Zimbabwe. The current economic malaise in Zimbabwe has affected a lot of children and the biggest challenge being experienced right now relates to access to food due to the drought that has hit Southern Africa with Zimbabwe being severely hit. Children are not accessing classes in school because they are hungry or are now involved in income generating activities. Looking into the immediate future, food insecurity, lack of adequately equipped classrooms and the aforementioned economic malaise are the biggest challenges facing the children. Measures to address these issues need to be put in place and there is need for development partners to come together and focus on providing immediate relief and support to young children so as to ensure great child development outcomes.