Following the launch of the ECD Advocacy week on 31 October, the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare partnered with several stakeholders to conduct the 2022 ECD National Annual Conference from Tuesday 1 November to Thursday 3 November 2022 at Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre.
Through multifaceted presentations at the conference, participants shared common challenges and limitations in ECD, as well opportunities for improvement. Common challenges and limitations included the lack of sufficient training of caregivers and low retention rate after their training; inadequate infrastructures and insufficient reciprocation from the parents and communities in most centers, among others.
One of the delegates at the conference, Grace Charles Mazinga, a Miss Malawi 2022 contestant advocating for ECD in her contest, was crowned President of the Conference so that she can learn and start the advocacy right away.
When we asked her for her take on the role of the conference in ECD advocacy, she pointed out that delegates to the conference resolved to advocate for having an ECD Act in Malawi, promote the ECD policy, capitalize on the viability of an ECD Information Management System, map all CBCCs in Malawi and provide adequate training and incentives for ECD caregivers, among other resolutions.
“The concepts of ECD should be at the heart of every Malawian and should be conspicuously posted on walls of shopping-malls, all public buildings, main roads-signposts, songs, movies, social media to make people aware of them,” she said. “Someone said that; ‘Having a dream is important, but a dream without action is just a wish.’ Malawi Vision 2063 relies on our actions and ECD being one of the sustainable goals; ‘Let us all do something.” Yes, all of us can do it!”
The conference, which drew its participants from officials from the Ministries of Education, of Gender and of Health, traditional leaders, religious bodies supporting ECD, ECD specialists, caregivers, mentors and organizations such as World Vision, Save the Children, Yamba Malawi, World Relief, DAPP, Action Aid, ECD Coalition, AECDM, Mother 2 Mother, NACC, Sight Savers, AWRM, St John of God, Livingstonia Synod, HAC, WACRAD, SAFE and UNICEF – was a successful platform to disseminate lessons and skills in early child development through shared knowledge and experiences.
Various pavilions were put up where different children’s toys and other early childhood development tools were displayed; and caregivers, mentors, organizations and government officials interacted.
Malawi has 11,399 ECD Community Based Centres in which 43% of Malawian children have access; far from the 2023 goal stipulated in the NESIP 2019/23 which is to achieve 65% of Malawian children accessing early childhood development services.
