Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Message from Addis Ababa City Administration Mayor H.E. Adanech Abiebie

Early childhood development (ECD) is a top priority of the Addis Ababa City Administration and my goal is to transform Addis Ababa by improving its urban environment and services to create friendlier public spaces and experiences for infants, toddlers, young children and their caregivers and improve their access to high-quality early childhood services. To this end, ‘Children: The Future Hope of Addis Ababa Early Childhood Development Initiative’ aims to ensure that by 2025, all children in Addis Ababa have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for Ethiopia. In collaboration with our various partners, ‘Children: The Future Hope of Addis Ababa Early Childhood Development Initiative’ is now implementing a model for intensified support to 330,000 vulnerable families and children while striving to provide universal access to comprehensive early childhood development services to all children by 2025.

Early Childhood Development in Addis Ababa

The federal government in collaboration with the Addis Ababa City Administration launched a comprehensive strategy in March 2021 to expand inclusive programming to include all children under the age of six. These include the implementation of universal pre-school, home visits by a team of social workers, day care centers, and more public play areas.

Early childhood development (ECD) services provided by the City Administration have experienced a major transition under the leadership of H.E. Adanech Abiebie, the first female mayor of Addis Ababa. Children: The Future Hope of Addis Ababa Early Childhood Development Initiative is an evidence-based, comprehensive, integrated, multisector early childhood development effort with the goal of making Addis Ababa the best city in Africa for raising children.

By 2026, the program's main goal is to guarantee that 1.3 million children under the age of six reach developmental milestones related to their health, learning, and psychological well-being. The program aims to achieve this by offering children in 330,000 vulnerable households with a focus on those who could miss important developmental milestones.

Ethiopia has additionally established an ECD Center of Excellence in Addis Ababa as the program progresses. The goal of this center is to advance early childhood development best practices and policy at the local, state, and federal levels. The main goals are to build strong links for a sustainable early childhood development subsector in Ethiopia and throughout Africa by utilizing inclusive and collaborative approaches, influencing policy directions, and improving the capacities, skills, and competencies of the early childhood care workforce. Furthermore, it will enable global collaborations to promote the spread and duplication of effective models in other nations.