RENCP ECCD Working Group Update January-August 2012 RENCP General Assembly 14

th

August

RENCP ECCD working group led the organization of the ECD Action Week from 22 to 28April 2012 in partnership with the Government of Rwanda

Main objectives of the Action Week: -To raise Early Childhood Development awareness; -To support government of Rwanda in the dissemination and mobilization around the ECD policy and its strategic plan; -To engage high level stakeholders around ECD budgeting; -To seek public commitment to include ECD in Sector and District level performance plan.

Activities:

1. Media mobilization – through an orientation with journalists conducted on 18th April – TV coverage, Radio coverage and written media coverage of activities conducted during the Action Week

2. ECD National Stakeholders meeting launched by Her Excellency the First Lady of Rwanda on 19th April For more information, please visit the MINEDUC website: http://mineduc.gov.rw/ECDRwanda/ 3. Development and Distribution of ECD communication materials (10,000 Posters, 20,000 booklets and 1000 brochures)

4. Community mobilization through public discussions, scale-up of projects, sms messages and radio spots which resulted in the inclusion of ECCD in District/Sector performance plans (approx. 12,000 people reached in around 18 Districts). 5. Partnership with Mobile Company TIGO - setd out 250,000 free sms messages on ECD at a frequency of 50,000 messages each day for 5 days.

What did we learn as a working group through this process?

- How to work together; - What doing Advocacy means in practice; - How to organize a campaign; - How to develop communication materials; How to get Government and other stakeholder’s buy-in; - How to interact with the private sector;

Current national-level engagement of the RENCP ECD working group

- ECD is gaining momentum in Rwanda; - Involvement in the Education Sector Strategy Review to ensure ECD is included; - Involvement and leadership of working groups set-up as a result of the ECD national stakeholders meeting: a) communication WG; b) modeling WG; c) M&E WG

Plans for August-December: 3 learning labs and study-visits to the following programmes:

August – CHF - Playgroups September – PLAN – ECCD centre based provision November – Umuhuza – 0-3 Family literacy 1 Study-visit to SC ECD programme took place in June

Murakoze Cyane!