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Special EACD Europe 2021 – Track: Global Partnerships: Opportunities and Challenges
Symposium on Early Childhood Development, Thursday, June 3, 2021
Title: Accountability Framework for Prioritising Timely Support for Children under-5 Years with Disabilities in the SDG era
Moderator
Adrian Davis, FFPHM, OBE
Presenters
Mijna Hadders-Algra, MD, PhD
Cecilia Breinbauer, MD, MPH
Bolajoko Olusanya, FRCPCH, PhD
On behalf of the Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators (GRDDC)
Abstract
Children under-5 years are universally acknowledged as an important population group for global/public health policy. Investments in early detection and intervention services for these children have been shown to enhance developmental outcomes and potentially reduce the future costs of education, healthcare, and other social spending. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly mandate the routine monitoring of the proportion of children under-5 years who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial wellbeing with a view to ensuring that they have access to quality early childhood development and care preparatory to school enrolment. Children under-5 years with disabilities have the greatest risk of not realizing their developmental potential, further exacerbated by Covid-19 restrictions. Arguably, these children deserve priority attention in any global initiatives for early childhood development (ECD). However, ECD programmes specifically for children under-5 years are lacking. Existing programmes are designed to cover the period from pregnancy to age 8 years and are primarily focused on nutritional interventions and psychosocial stimulation. In this symposium, the significance of an ECD framework that prioritizes children under-5 years with disabilities will be examined within the context of the Conventions on the Rights of the Child and of Persons with Disabilities, the Resolution of the World Health Assembly on Disability (WHA66.9), and the disability-inclusive provisions of the SDGs. The critical role of an effective global partnership among key stakeholders in the disability community and the need for a monitoring mechanism for tracking progress will be discussed.