On 15 December 2020, EFEE joined the online launch of the new Eurochild campaign “First Years First Priority” on early childhood development (ECD). In the course of this event, participants were informed about the content as well as the implementation process of the campaign.

The campaign is a partnership project between Eurochild, the International Step by Step Association (ISSA), the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), the Roma Education Fund (REF) and the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The objective of the campaign is to reduce existing inequalities in European societies when it comes to young children’s access to qualitative services.  . Against this backdrop, the campaign strives to raise public awareness, in particular for the needs of vulnerable children, including migrant, disabled and Roma children, up to the age of 6 years and, as a consequence, eradicate existing inequalities. Thereby, six interconnected fields such as child poverty and early learning were chosen as focal points. “Early childhood education sets the tone for a future life”, noted Mr. Ioan Tanase (REF). In this regard, the creation of a child friendly environment, enabling every child to access qualitative services, independent of his socio-economic background, would be a crucial precondition.

The implementation of the campaign is characterized by a top-down as well as a bottom-up approach. The campaign will “run in 9 selected countries across Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Romania) under the leadership of national coordinators that will facilitate the establishment of broad coalitions of national partners campaigning together to increase and improve national efforts to support ECD”. EFEE will follow the progress of the campaign closely in light of a potential partnership with Eurochild, to be discussed at the beginning of next year.

For more details, please contact samira.buhrer@educationemployers.eu