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Helping young children across the Pacific reach their full potential through coordinated action and investment in early childhood development

About Pacific Council for ECD

2023 Pacific Regional ECD Forum

Group Photo

Securing the Pacific for a sustainable future for our children, cannot be left to chance.

The 2023 Pacific Early Childhood Development (ECD) Forum, with the theme Building a Resilient Blue Pacific Through Early Childhood Development, was a 3-day high-level forum (22-24 February) in Fiji for Pacific Island governments to discuss early childhood investments as a critical component of building resilience to climate change, natural disasters and other emergencies.

Pacific Island governments also discussed advances made since the declaration of the Pasifika Call to Action on ECD in 2017 – the region’s nine-point action agenda that lays out critical national efforts to secure the optimal development of young children.

At the Forum, government ministers from Pacific island countries and from several sectors, including education, finance, health and social welfare,formally endorsed the addition of Action Point 10 of the Pasifika Call to Action on Early Childhood Development (ECD).

Action Point 10 of the Pasifika Call to Action on ECD, prioritises early childhood development as a pathway to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities to the effects of climate change and other emergencies, and promote close collaboration between the areas of ECD and natural resources, environment and sustainable development to create a better future for children in the region.

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Watch the highlights here!

Watch the ECD Climate Video

2022 Pacific Child Website Launch and PRC4ECD Commitment to Climate Change

Young children stand together, raising their hands in a celebratory mood, dressed in their Pacific traditional attire, with a rainbow in the sky behind them.

In the margins of the 51st Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji (12-14 July 2022), Forum Chair and Fiji Prime Minister Hon Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama and Samoa Prime Minister Hon Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata’afa officiated at the Pacific Child Website Launch and the PRC4ECD Commitment to Climate Change.

The childrens’ message was loud and clear:

For a climate resilient future, we must invest in early childhood development now.

At the launch, students of Mobile Kindy Fiji and Pacific Climate Warrior mother-daughter duo Alisi Rabukawaqa-Nacewa and 8-year-old Aiyanna Nacewa, shared their perspectives with Pacific leaders on the importance of early childhood development as part of building a thriving society, and a healthy planet for future generations.

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2019 Pacific Regional ECD Forum

A view of the meeting room in which the 2019 Pacific Early Childhood Development Forum took place in Nadi, Fiji.

We must invest now in early childhood development!

Pacific Island leaders from 15 countries and partners met in 2019 for a dialogue on early childhood development.

Watch the highlights here!

At the Pacific ECD Forum, UNICEF supported a session discussing ECD and climate change, in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s climate change team. The importance of ECD investments in climate change response and to collaborate as a Pacific region in making the youngest children visible in the climate crisis response.

Our children, today, Our leaders tomorrow!

Pacific Leaders Commit to Early Childhood Development

Pacific Regional Council group photo

The Pacific Regional Council for Early Childhood Development (PRC4ECD) demonstrates the commitment of leaders across the Pacific to support young children and their families, recognizing the overwhelming evidence of the role of early years investments in transforming individual lives, communities and entire nations.

Formally established in 2019, the council is comprised of at least two Ministers from each of the 15 countries and territories (Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) and representing the finance and social sectors (education, health, justice, social welfare, women & children).

PRC4ECD is unique – it is the only intergovernmental unit for ECD in the world. The council demonstrates a whole-of-government approach to supporting the Pacific’s youngest citizens.

ECD Country Profiles

Click or tap on a country in this map to learn more about their ECD profile.

ECD Resources

Visit our library to access key resources on ECD in the Pacific and globally