H.E. Ato Temesgen Tiruneh, Deputy Prime Minister of the FDRE, held a high-level meeting regarding Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiatives with the AfC-ECD Executive team on July 9th, 2026. The Deputy PM offered a landmark support and directive to expand the ECD initiatives to all regions based on the lessons learned from Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, and regions of Amhara, Central Ethiopia, Oromia and Sidama.
At the meeting, Dr. Kebede Worku, CEO of AfC-ECD expressed his appreciation for H.E. Ato Temesgen for his support for the Addis Early Childhood International Conference held in Addis Ababa in May 2026. Dr. Kebede also outlined the Center’s current progress in research, professional capacity building, documenting best practices, and facilitating data-driven decision-making. He noted that the initiative is currently being scaled up across five regions. Dr. Meseret Zelalem, Deputy CEO of the Center, presented a report highlighting the importance of multi-sectoral coordination as per the 2023 federal ECDE policy framework. She emphasized that investing in early childhood development is a key solution to breaking the cycle of poverty, improving educational outcomes, and boosting economic productivity. Dr. Meseret highlighted the exemplary involvement of Addis Ababa City Administration ECD and encouraging progress observed from this year’s assessment compared with baseline findings for Dire Dawa Administration. The discussion outlined the plan to implement a “Cross-sectoral Dashboard” system to assist political leadership in making evidence-based decisions.
H.E. Ato Temesgen Tiruneh, expressing the government’s commitment to ECD:
• Emphasized expansion of ECD program to all regions, regardless of their current level of implementation.
• The government will monitor how regions allocate their budgets for education, agriculture (food and nutrition), and health to ensure appropriate attention and resources are dedicated to ECD initiatives
• Advised to cascade the training from the regions to the point of care, and the regions should allocate specific budgets for training and focus on utilizing local frontline experts to conduct the sessions and provide services
• Emphasized the critical need to use innovative methods to provide education, training, and raise awareness among parents, caregivers, and the public through different media and continuous discussion forums.
• Promised to provide high-level leadership to ensure support from development partners and follow up with regions on the focus of the program implementation and budget allocation
• Outlined the steps to implement a “Cross-sectoral Dashboard” system from DPM to the different levels of leadership to assist Political leadership in making evidence-based decisions.
• Guided its coordination within the exiting Food and Nutrition Council.
