番茄社区

Current Initiatives

First Regional ECCD Seminar / Institute(Windhoek, Namibia 1997)

First African International ECD Conference (Kampala, Uganda 1999)

6th African Scholars Workshop (Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire 2016 )

ECDVU SSA-2 Convocation (Victoria, Canada 2008)

project was developed out of a growing set of SSA-ECD initiatives, each of which has its own webpage. The unifying purpose of the three initiatives is to promote ECD capacity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 


The oldest of the three initiatives is the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) which focuses primarily on ECD professional capacity in governmental and non-governmental institutions throughout SSA. ECDVU is an innovative and multi-faceted approach to addressing Early Childhood Care and Development (ECD) leadership needs in the Majority World. It is a unique training and capacity building program using distributed learning methods including interactive web-based course work as well as face-to-face seminars. ECDVU courses have been delivered as a one year (Professional Certificate and Graduate Diploma) and a three year (Master's degree) program. The ECDVU is a program of the School of Child and Youth Care at the 番茄社区 and it is housed within the Unit for Early Years Research and Development (EYRD), a centre committed to effective and innovative work in ECD.

Typically, ECDVU participants are nominated by ECD country committees; these committees' nominations are based on the participant achieving inter-sectoral representation and ensuring evidence of individual commitment to child well-being and broader social development within the country. Nominees accept responsibility for promoting ECD capacity within their country, their region and internationally. The ECDVU is committed to promoting ECD in The Majority World through innovative education, networking, publishing and other forms of scholarly activity.

It is of concern that while Africa has approximately 18% of the world's child population, African scholarly leadership accounts for much less than 1% of all published international literature on children, their care and their development. This initiative grows out of many inter-related activities, all connected by a commitment to promote advanced scholarly work that supports children's well-being.
The African Scholars and Institutions (AS&I) initiative was launched in 2008, with an objective to expand the professional, political and advocacy activities already underway with enhanced post-secondary education and research capacities. A number of writing, research and workshop activities have been undertaken through the AS&I, with many of them described in the News-Journal, Africa ECD Voice, with four editions in 2013 and 2014

Another key initiatve has been the development of a Early Childhood Development Resources in sub-Saharan Africa Compendium (ECDR-SSA). The ECDR-SSA compendium identifies internationally accessible literature on ECD in SSA, and, as such, most of the entries take the form of journal articles, books, and reports. Efforts have been made to include forms of documentation that generally fall outside of traditional academic search databases. This includes forms of grey literature such as theses and dissertations, conference proceedings, and training curricula. The Compendium contains over 800 references to child development and ECD resources focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.