African Center for Early Childhood Development

27/08/2025

27/08/2025

Big Win and AfC-ECD Bring ECD Priority Issues to the Attention of Amhara Top Leadership

Big Win Philanthropy, an international charitable organization working on children and youth development, and the African Center for Early Childhood Development (AfC-ECD), have brought major concerns of Early Childhood Development (ECD) to the Attention of policy makers of the Amhara National Regional State.

Big Win CEO Dr. Keseteberhan Admassu and AfC-ECD Deputy CEO Dr. Meseret Zelalem gave briefings on the initiatives and activities undertaken by their respective organizations related to ECD on the launch of “The Digital Amhara Initiative” that aims to benefit over 5,000,000 youth from digital trainings over the next five years.

At the occasion, Dr. Keseteberhan Admassu spoke on the importance of the Early Childhood Development Program implementation in the Amhara regional state while Dr. Meseret highlighted on what the center has accomplished working alongside the region’s pertinent bureaus including the regional ECD baseline survey conducted with the support of Big Win Philanthropy.

The Amhara Regional State's Leadership launched the 'Digital Amhara Digital Literacy Program' on August 23, 2025 as the culmination of a leadership exchange program in Rwanda, January 2025 which was facilitated by Big Win Philanthropy.

The launching event was held in the town of Bahir Dar, capital of Amhara Regional State and attended by top level officials and prominent personalities, including His Excellency Ato Arega Kebede, President of the Amhara Region, and Dr. Keseteberhan Admassu, CEO of Big Win Philanthropy. All in all, over 100 participants were present, including cabinet members, bureau heads, zonal administrators and cities Mayors.

The Digital Amhara initiative was developed through a collaborative effort led by the Amhara Presidential Delivery Unit (APDU). Key partners included the Bureau of Education, the Bureau of Innovation and Technology, and the Bureau of Labor and Training. Academic and training institutions, notably Bahir Dar University, also played a crucial role.

The program is expected to offer basic, intermediate, and advanced digital courses for young people through a mix of self-learning, facilitated sessions, and blended mechanisms, depending on the availability of infrastructure and local context of the trainees.

Both the President and the CEO emphasized the importance of this initiative, asserting that "digitalization is no longer an option for the Amhara region." The event concluded with a strong consensus on the action points needed for the program's effective implementation and sustainability.

On behalf of the Amhara National Regional State, H.E. President Ato Arega Kebede, and H.E. Dr. Mulunesh Dessie, with the rank of Vice President and Head of Education Bureau, extended their heartfelt appreciation to Ms. Jamie Cooper and Dr. Kesete, President and Chairwoman, and CEO of Big Win Philanthropy, respectively and their dedicated team for their invaluable and transformative support.

H.E. the President indicated that the Youth Employment Initiative and Early Childhood Development program through their active involvement and aligning to the Seqota Declaration have played a critical role in unlocking new opportunities of ECD, maternal and child health. The President also expressed his conviction that this partnership will continue in the time to come.

17/06/2025

https://press.et/herald/?p=117193

Society Cultivating early childhood for paving productive posterity avenue — June 14, 2025 comments off The Addis Ababa City Administration is strongly encouraged to sustain and strengthen its existing Early Childhood Development (ECD) program interventions, which have demonstrated measurable succ...

17/06/2025

https://press.et/herald/?p=117015

Featured Nurturing early childhood key to building productive future: Experts — June 12, 2025 comments off ADDIS ABABA – Health professionals and early childhood development advocates have emphasized the critical importance of nurturing care in the early years of life, saying it lays the foundat...

12/06/2025

Early Childhood Development Programs Progress Evaluation in Addis

- 87.95% Children In Addis Ababa Are Developmentally On-Track
- Parental Coaching Program Lacks Intervention Changes Monitor Systems

The African Center for Early Childhoods Development (AfC-ECD), yesterday June 11, 2025, organized a dissemination workshop to share the findings of its two assessment researches.

The findings presented to Addis Ababa health sector leaders and experts are the process evaluation of “Parental Coaching for Early Childhood Development (PC-ECD) Program” and “Developmental Milestone status of children aged under three years in Addis Ababa, January 2025”.

The Addis Ababa “Children: The Future Hopes of Addis Ababa” Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative comprises nine strategic pillars including the Parental Coaching for Early Childhood Development (PC-ECD).

The initiative is aligned with Ethiopia’s 2023 National ECD Policy Framework that has recognized early childhood as foundational for children’s future in all aspects of health, intellectual and social development.

Developmental Milestone

The present developmental assessment findings show that majority of children are on-track and have clear improvement in developmental milestones. It also reveals that a modest but meaningful improvement shown from the earlier baseline.

According to the study’s sample analysis, “87.95% children in Addis Ababa are developmentally on-track.”

Comparing the developmental milestones of children under 3 years of age in their geographic location in the city and their s*x variations, it also states that “there is only minimal variation across sub-cities and s*xes.”

The developmental milestone assessment domains are motor, cognitive, language and socio-emotional.

It indicates that the ECD programs are low-cost and but highly effective and focuses on at-risk populations and continued support.

Parental Coaching

The process evaluation study of the PC-ECD, on the other hand, stipulates that parents and PC workers are satisfied with the fidelity, quality and effectiveness of the parental coaching implementation.
As to the PC-ECD study, there was a high degree of conformity to system protocols, program content, and delivery quality.

“However, issues like inconsistent cultural contextualization, lack of adherence to the prescribed duration of coaching and coaches’ limited interaction with children were identified as existing challenges.”

“The study also hinted barriers to optimal implementation and these barriers include a lack of resources and discontent with the frequency, length, intensity and latency of coaching sessions.” It added.

ECD parental coaches are workers who provide personalized guidance to parents, helping them understand and support their child's development and achieve the milestones.

The Parental Coaching (PC) process evaluation states that a majority of parents (86%) agreed that the information provided was comprehensive for each area (e.g., language, physical development, etc.), although 14% disagreed. Some 89.5% of the respondents say that there is a follow-up support while 10.5% of them indicated that there is lack of follow-up.

The study indicates that 51% of research participants have reported a lack of systems to monitor intervention changes; and only 43.5% reported the use of a plan-practice-feedback system.

Early childhood, ages 0–6, is a critical period for physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development.

04/06/2025

AfC-ECD Holds Dissemination Workshop on Preprimary Children Developmental Milestones and School Readiness Assessment Finding in Addis Ababa

The African Center for Early Childhood Development (AfC-ECD), on June 3, 2025, held a dissemination workshop to share the findings of the study it conducted titled “Developmental Milestones and School Readiness Assessment of Children Enrollment in Pre-primary Schools in Addis Ababa.”

The dissemination workshop was attended by educational sector stakeholders of the Addis Ababa City Administration comprising teachers, school principal, city education bureau officials and other drawn from pertinent bodies.

At the occasion, Sintayehu Abate (Ph.D.), AfC-ECD Senior Research Advisor, presented the key assessment findings to participants of the workshop where he stated that the study covered 26 pre-primary schools and it aimed at conducting a scientific assessment on the developmental milestones and school readiness in Addis.

According to the Senior Research Advisor, the core domains assessed in the study are: the cognitive development, language and communication, motor skills, socio-emotional development of the preprimary school children in the city.

He said that the study on the developmental status of children under three years of age in Addis Ababa provides a comprehensive analysis of child development trends across the city's sub-cities, highlighting both encouraging outcomes and areas requiring further attention. “The findings indicate that 87.95% of children are “on-track”, meeting the expected developmental milestones, while 12.05% are “off-track.”

The findings indicate that while most children are meeting expected developmental milestones, there is variation within the sample that underscores the need for targeted interventions to support those showing developmental delays.

He also indicated that a noteworthy improvement was shown in school readiness activities in Addis Ababa.

Head of the Education Bureau of Addis Ababa City Administration Dr. Zelalem Mulatu, who was present at the dissemination workshop and moderated the discussion at the occasion, accentuated that early learning as part of the Early Childhood Development Program of the city is well in progress and commendable results are registered around the program so far.

The Bureau indicated that the city administration has showed its commitment by allocating a significant budget for the program and providing various support including evaluation and monitoring, capacity building training to transform the process further and urged the participants to continue their unwavering efforts to accomplish a great deal even further in the time to come.

Dr. Kebede Worku, CEO of AfC-ECD, on his part said that as part of his center’s core function, the assessment was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the play-based early learning method being implemented in pre-primary schools in the city to bring about the overall development of children and their readiness to effectively join primary schools.

Furthermore, apart from its research works the CEO said that the center may carry out various follow up activities, including capacity building, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders based on the recommendations presented in the study.

He also extended his thanks to participants, the city’s Bureau of Education (BoE), SPMO, and other partners that have contributed to the realization of the assessment and its dissemination.

Dr. Meseret Zelalem, Deputy CEO of the African Center for Early Childhood Development (AfC-ECD), also expressed her gratitude to participants for their continued and solid support to her center.

The Deputy CEO extended her special thanks to Dr. Zelalem Mulatu, his Deputy Ato Wendimu Oumer, Dr. Kebede Worku and the Van Leer Foundation for their technical and financial support for the successful completion of assessment.

Also at the workshop, participants forwarded various questions during the discussion session moderated by Dr. Zelalem and responses were given by himself, Dr. Kebede Worku and Dr. Sintayehu.

04/06/2025

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30/05/2025

“It Is Not Only Ours, It Is a Center For All Africans” Honorable Mayor Adanech Abiebie

30/05/2025

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“የኛ ብቻ ሳይሆን የአፍሪካዉያን ማዕከል ነዉ።” ክብርት ከንቲባ አዳነች አቤቤ “ይሄ የልህቀት ማዕከል በጣም ትልቅ ለዉጥ ያመጣል። ስራዎቻችን በዉቀት ፣ በመረጃ ፣ በጥናት መደገፍ መቻ...