Today the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative launches a compendium of six Country Briefs. The briefs – focused on Ecuador, Ghana, Georgia, Kenya, Philippines and Singapore - illustrate the challenges faced by the early childhood workforce and offer insights into potential responses to them.
The compendium is informed by desk reviews and information collected through key informant interviews with country experts from implementing NGOs, multilaterals and research institutions, as well as program managers and government officials from 15 countries. After identifying six promising country approaches to highlight, researchers conducted further desk research and interviews to identify key enablers and barriers to implementation.
In addition to highlighting efforts to support the workforce across a variety of geographies and services the briefs share lessons about how policymakers and practitioners can strengthen the early childhood workforce.
“The challenges facing the early childhood workforce – limited access to professional development, difficult working conditions, lack of career pathways – are remarkably similar across countries. Yet, we don’t know very much about how to address them. That’s why we’re excited to share how six countries are tackling common workforce development issues. We hope that the practical examples and potential lessons in each brief will help policymakers and practitioners overcome related obstacles in their own countries,” says Michelle Neuman, Senior Fellow at Results for Development and author of Developing Career Pathways for Early Childhood Care and Education Workers.
These briefs are part of a body of work produced by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative – offering insights into country priorities around the early childhood workforce and spotlighting approaches used to support this workforce. Find more research contributing to the understanding of the early childhood workforce across the globe here.
Photo - ©UNICEF/McConnico
