All children deserve a fair start in their life. Poverty, discrimination, disability should not stand in the way of children’s educational, physical, emotional and social growth. These are the core messages of the First Years First Priority Europe-wide campaign, in which Eurochild and the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) co-lead this Europe-wide campaign while the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and the Roma Education Fund (REF) are associate partners, and OSF is a supporter.
The First Years First Priority campaign is seeking to build a strong community of early childhood development (ECD) advocates at the EU and national level to guarantee that early childhood development is highly positioned on the political agenda.
The campaign puts an emphasis on children 0 to 6 years old, with a special focus on the first 1,000 days of the child’s life and accents on the most vulnerable children (e.g., coming from Roma and Travellers’ background, children with disabilities, migrant and refugee children, children at risk of entering, or in, alternative care, and those living in extreme poverty). Civil society organizations are to be engaged, parents are to be empowered to stand for their own rights and those of their children.
While some countries, such as Ireland and Finland, have already placed early childhood development among their national priorities, the COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted the deficiency of targeted measures for families with young children in Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Portugal.
The campaign runs in 9 countries across Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Romania) under the leadership of national coordinators that will facilitate the establishment of expanded coalitions of national partners campaigning together to improve national efforts to support ECD.
Roma Education Fund is a member of the Steering Committee of the First Year First Priority, providing guidance, assistance and advice. The initiative is at the stage of seeking broader attention across early childhood development professionals in the campaign countries with the goal to advocate at the EU level for allocating extra resources for ECD.
The period of the campaign (2020 to 2024) offers a unique window of opportunity because the campaign’s objective to ensure a fair start for every child in Europe aligns with several priorities of the European Union, says a draft policy brief of the Campaign’s Task Force on Research and Evidence.
In early 2021, the European Commission will propose an Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Launched in November 2017 by the Presidents of the European Council, European Parliament and the European Commission, the EPSR sets out 20 principles that were expected to drive social progress across the EU. Many of these principles are relevant to the rights and well-being of children, including those addressing minimum income, access to essential services, work-life balance, education, housing and assistance for the homeless. Principle 11 exclusively focuses on children, stating that: “Children have the right to protection from poverty. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have the right to specific measures to enhance equal opportunities.”
The European Child Guarantee will be an integral part of this Action Plan. It will also be launched in spring 2021, at the same time as a new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child. The Child Guarantee is expected to take the form of a European Council Recommendation that builds on the 3 pillar approach of the 2013 European Commission Recommendation on Investing in Children, i.e. access to adequate resources and benefits; access to affordable, quality and inclusive services; children’s right to participate in cultural and recreational activities and in decisions affecting their lives. This renewed political commitment and policy framework will ensure more EU financial resources are directed towards national efforts to tackle child poverty.
At the time the First Years, First Priority campaign is launched, EU leaders are finalizing negotiations on both the next EU 7-year budget, the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027, as well as the Next Generation EU, a temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery.
Within the next MFF, the European Social Fund Plus will support investments designed to tackle child poverty and to promote early childhood development. Whilst specific earmarking of resources is not yet decided, all EU Member States are expected to develop national anti-poverty strategies, with a specific focus on child poverty.
Other EU funds can also be applied to investments that contribute to tackling inequality in early childhood including: the European Regional Development Fund, the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund, Erasmus Plus, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and funding in the field of healthcare.
One can download the country fact sheets with the key recommendations on early childhood development that are set by each of the national coordinators. In addition, 9 case studies have been produced, documenting only few examples of different types of policies and services that take a holistic perspective to ECD: https://firstyearsfirstpriority.eu/resources/
Presentation of the campaign read here.
See the campaign vision flyer here.
