During a three-day workshop in Amman, Jordan, from 16 March to 18 March, nearly 100 policymakers, economists, child development experts, dialogue practitioners, and youth met to explore ways that investment in early childhood development, often referred to as “ECD,” can help build and sustain peace, particularly in conflict zones.
The workshop, organized in partnership with the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) and the UNICEF Jordan Office, and held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, is the seventh in a series of nine workshops hosted by the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally, an initiative of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Queen Rania personally attended the public session on the first day, which helped draw the attention of policy makers and the media to this important event. Jordan was chosen as the location for the workshop because of the country’s strong commitment to early childhood and youth.
“Science is changing the way we are thinking about the earliest years of life. We are in the midst of a revolutionary shift in what we know about brain development, and its foundation, not only for life-long health, learning and productivity, but also for bringing change in society. The early childhood period lasts a lifetime,” said Pia Rebello Britto, Global Chief and Senior Adviser in UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development Unit and workshop co-chair.
Early childhood is an integral time in the formation of identity – be it religious identity, ethnic identity, national identity, gender identity, or other forms of identity – and in the development of a sense of well-being and peace. Yet, currently, actions to promote healthy development are too often lacking in conflict settings.
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Senior Adviser at KAICIID and the other co-chair of the event, opened the workshop by explaining that the aim was to provide a platform for dialogue between a wide range of stakeholders, representing different agendas, to identify solutions for reducing violence and promoting harmonious interpersonal and intergroup relationships.
Professor Abu-Nimer laid out three objectives for the workshop, which he said were to link the ECD community with policy makers, to link policy related to ECD with policy related to later stages of development, and to link ECD and peacebuilding, including considering ways to use interreligious and intercultural dialogue to immunize young children against future intolerance and incitement to violence.
Over the course of the three days, the participants shared examples of how to use ECD initiatives to reduce violence and promote citizenship, while addressing the underlying causes of conflict. This included discussion of potentially effective models of dialogue and conflict resolution to leverage this early period in a child’s life for efforts to build and sustain peace.
Rami Khouri, a Senior Public Policy Fellow at the American University in Beirut, delivered the keynote address, providing a detailed history and analysis of the current conflict and struggle in the Arab region, which is having a devastating impact on early childhood and youth development.
The workshop included a wide range of panel and interactive discussions, including on the topics of the effects of violence on young children; policies that invest in women and young children as peacebuilders; perspectives from the ground; and, the potential of communications and technology to reduce violence.
Presenting the panel on investing in women and youth as peacebuilders, HRH Princess Sarah Zeid, from Every Woman, Every Child, said that to meet the needs of children, mothers must be provided with family planning and health services. Selim el Sayegh, former Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, echoed Princess Sarah’s statements and explained that one of the primary obstacles in failed states was developing policies to support women and children as peacemakers.
Indeed, a recurrent theme across the various panels was the difficulty of conducting research, delivering services and implementing initiatives in conflict situations – within failed or weak states. In many instances, participants explained that the conflict overwhelmed their personal and professional capacities to cope with the situation.
Abu-Nimer said that a possible answer to this issue was forging a closer bond between the fields of ECD and peacebuilding and dialogue. “I think we have not made as much progress as we can on a systematic way of making dialogue and peacebuilding an integral part of early childhood development. There needs to be a deliberate intention on the part of practitioners to look for ways to incorporate these methods in their operations,” he said.
Before the workshop ended, a group of seven youth leaders from Jordan held a roundtable discussion about how they believe they can be a force for change in their society. They discussed education, peace, security and supporting early child development. They also introduced the participants to the Jeel 962 Youth Network, which is using creative ways to engage Arab youth on everything from the environment to education.
The findings of the workshop will form a comprehensive report that will be widely disseminated amongst the ECD and peace and security communities.
The informal recommendations of the participants included:
•Build a closer link between ECD and peacebuilding and dialogue
•Engage religious leaders and institutions in the process of peace building and youth development by learning to speak their language
•Train educators and parents to support children in conflict and disaster situations because they are often “first responders”
•Provide more support to those entrusted with the care and development of young children in conflict zones
•Share examples of projects and policies that are working across different fields and disciplines
•Create an international ECD network to help develop curricula that promote life skills and competencies
•Look closer at linking ECD and with later stages of development
•Build stronger bridges between academia and policy makers
•Create a stronger intra-generational dialogue within the field of ECD