By 2026, all children in Addis Ababa will have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for Ethiopia.
To provide comprehensive, integrated, and high-quality early childhood development services to all children (0-6 years) of Addis Ababa, with a special focus on reaching and empowering those from the most vulnerable households.
We are dedicated to improving the core developmental outcomes for every child. The program's main objective is to provide universal access to comprehensive ECD services for these 1.3 million under 6 years old children. Therefore, this program provides intensified support to 330,000 economically vulnerable low-income households to ensure no child is left behind.
The foundation of our work rests on three core principles that must be integrated into all our projects and activities:
Our work is organized around nine Key Strategic Initiatives (KSIs) designed to transform both direct services for children and the underlying systems that support them.
These initiatives provide direct support, care, coaching and education to children and their families
This is our ground-level support, providing nurturing care from conception to age six. We recruit and deploy trained parental coaches to conduct regular house-to-house visits, offering parental coaching services to parents/caregivers. This initiative also provides supplementary feeding to targeted low-income pregnant, breast feeding and children under three years of age.
Target: Deploy 5,000 Parental Coaches and 128 supervisory teams to reach 330,000 economically vulnerable households.We are overhauling MCH services in health centers to prioritize the health and well-being of mothers and children. This includes integrating ECD-based services and establishing organized referral systems.
Target: Transform 102 Health Centers and train 2,700 new health professionals in ECD-based MCH services.We are increasing the availability of affordable, high-quality nurturing care for children between 7 months and 3 years. Day-care services are being expanded across multiple modalities: Publicly Financed (fully funded for low-income families), Community-Run in condominium settings, and Workplace Daycares (public workplaces), Day mother (home based care), private for profit and NGO based daycares.
Target: Establish 1,000 new daycare centers citywide, including 242 Public Financed centers.This initiative focuses on expanding access to pre-primary education for children aged 4 to 6 years and transforming the learning approach. We are shifting from classical methods to a play-based, child-centered education model.
Target: Transform 1,169 schools into model-like institutions and provide capacity building training to 15,000 teachers and supervisors.We aim to establish nurturing, inclusive, and accessible playgrounds in every corner of the city to foster physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. A key component is the "Transforming Streets for Play" project, which closes roads on Sundays for guided play activities.
Target: Establish 12,000 playgrounds across Addis Ababa (two per city block) and transform 189 streets for play every Sunday.These initiatives ensure the long-term quality, sustainability, and accountability of the entire ECD system
This institution will be a national and continental hub dedicated to developing world-class expertise. The CoE will focus on advancing research, knowledge development, working on standards and guidelines and high-quality professional development training for ECD practitioners and teachers.
This involves legally establishing and operationalizing the governance structures that strategically lead the program, including the Strategic Programs Management Office (SPMO) and multi-sectoral ECD committees at the city, sub-city, and woreda levels. This pillar also ensures policy review and alignment with ECD standards.
We prioritize clear and purposeful communication with all stakeholders and actively advocate for the ECD sub-sector as a whole system. This involves organizing platforms, engaging partners, and building a communication plan linked directly to the ECD strategy.
To drive continuous improvement and ensure accountability, we are establishing an integrated MEL system. This includes conducting a comprehensive ECD baseline survey, developing KPIs for performance evaluation, and installing a dashboard system to make data accessible for evidence-based decision-making.