Developing an International Network to Support Early Childhood Development (ECD) : Results from Experience in Africa

An effective network for capacity building, knowledge sharing, and intercountry cooperation is a powerful vehicle to enhance allocative efficiency in education development. This article describes an early childhood development (ECD) network for Africa and its multipronged approach of regional partnerships, southsouth learning exchanges through international conferences and seminars, and an ECD virtual university that uses 21st-century technologies and distributed learning methods to provide systematic training and build capacity among cohorts of ECD leaders in the Majority World. The article outlines the network's history, goals, key results, challenges encountered, and lessons learned, and addresses the question: In the context of education development, why is early childhood so important?