Community-driven interventions for Early Childhood Development:

Experiences and results from Eastern and Southern Africa

Wednesday October 11, 2023

3:30pm - 5:00pm EAT

Co-hosted by Firelight and the Aga Khan University - Institute for Human Development

Scroll down to learn more about the webinar.

Webinar Description:

Firelight and the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Human Development invite you to join us for an interactive webinar on community-driven interventions for early childhood development in eastern and southern Africa.

Practitioners and researchers in the field of early childhood development are increasingly emphasizing the importance of interventions being responsive to the needs and strengths of the communities they are serving. Interventions are also more relevant, impactful, and sustainable when they are designed, owned, and driven by communities themselves, rather than brought in from the outside. This is being increasingly realized by practitioners, funders, and academics, and there is growing demand for space to engage, learn, and build a knowledge base around the process and impact of community-driven interventions for early childhood development. Firelight and AKU-IHD seek to respond to this demand through this webinar and in other ways in the years ahead.

In this interactive webinar, our brilliant line-up of panelists will draw from their experience and expertise in community-based practice, research, and sectoral trends, and share their observations and reflections around designing, implementing, and evaluating community-driven interventions for ECD, and the transformative results they are seeing for communities and for children in particular.

About the Panelists:

Dr. Amina Abubakar, distinguished African research psychologist, currently serving as Professor and Director at the Institute for Human Development at the Aga Khan University.

Margaret Mundia, experienced social worker in Zambia, currently mobilizing community-led action for ECD in her role as Chief Trustee with Kaoma Wise Trust CBO in Kaoma.

Dr. Seth Oppong, expert African psychologist with a focus on decolonizing early childhood science and interventions in Africa, currently serving as Professor of Psychology at the University of Botswana.

Gideon Kimosop, experienced community practitioner working on programs supporting young children and their families in Kenya, currently serving as Program Coordinator with Nawiri Child Development Program in northern Kenya

Carolyne Ng’eny, experienced practitioner in managing interventions aimed at social justice for disadvantaged populations, currently supporting community-driven systems change for early childhood development in Malawi and Zambia in her role as Program Officer with Firelight.

Charles Nyerere, experienced social worker in Malawi, currently supporting community-driven interventions for ECD in his role as Program Officer with Nachikodowa CBO in Mulanje.

With concluding remarks by –

Maniza Ntekim, experienced practitioner in supporting early childhood interventions across eastern and southern Africa, currently serving as Senior Programme Officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

To learn more about the panelists, please click here.