Lusaka, Zambia
February 19 – 21, 2020
“Investing in early childhood is an investment in our future” these were the words of Honorable Dr Chitalu Chilufya, Minster of Health, Republic of Zambia upon visiting AfECN’s exhibition at the recently concluded 69th Health Ministers Conference of the East, Central & Southern Africa Health Community.
ECSA-HC is an inter-governmental organization that fosters and promotes regional cooperation in health. Member states of the ECSA-HC are Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In pursuit of its mandate, ECSA-HC hosts several annual convenings of health ministers from ECSA-HC member states. The 69th Conference of Health Ministers Conference was held from 19th to 21st February 2020 in Lusaka, Zambia. The Conference brought together Ministers of Health, Permanent/principal Secretaries, Senior Officials from Ministries of Health, Experts, Researchers, Heads of Health Training Institutions and diverse Collaborating Partners in the region and beyond. The main theme of the conference was Innovation and Accountability in Health Towards Achieving Universal Health Coverage. The 69th Health Ministers Conference featured 3 days of presentations and deliberations on issues ranging from adolescent and young people’s health; equity and access to eye health and water and sanitation health; food safety; substance use and mental health; and tackling health threats.
The last two decades have brought a wealth of scientific and programmatic evidence in early brain development that have enabled us to outline the necessary ingredients in early childhood for optimal development. These ingredients outlined in the 2018 UNICEF/WHO Nurturing Care Framework include good health, adequate nutrition, opportunities for early learning and responsive care-giving. The first 1000 days, starting from conception are a period of special sensitivity, when children are most susceptible to environmental influences. This period lays the foundation for health, well-being, learning and productivity throughout a persons whole life and has an impact on the health and well-being of the next generation. Enhancing nurturing care requires multi-sectoral collaboration within and across sectors, health, education and child protection sectors. The health sector plays a vital role given its access to young children in pregnancy and the early years through maternal, newborn and child health services. Expanding existing maternal and child health services to include interventions that promote nurturing care is an important entry point for multi-sectoral collaborations that support families and reach very young children.
For the ECSA-HC discussions on integration of nurturing care into existing service delivery platforms is not new. During the 67th Health Ministers Conference held in Victoria Town Zimbabwe in 2018, Health Ministers adopted resolution 4, directing the ECSA-HC secretariat to support countries to scale up implementation of responsive caregiving. Building off of this resolution and AfECN’s growing partnership with ECSA-HC, AfECN was invited to share more about the importance of responsive caregiving and garner support for collaboration to strengthen responsive care-giving policies and practices through the ECSA – HC platform.
On Friday 21st February, AfECN in partnership with UNICEF ESARO and WHO facilitated a presentation on Responsive Caregiving for Early Childhood Development for the Health Ministers and delegates of the conference. The presentation provided an overview of the global and regional commitments to early childhood development, an overview of the Nurturing Care Framework including its scientific underpinnings and examples of implementation across the region. The Zambia Ministry of Health also participated in the panel presentation and shared highlights of Zambia’s progress in operationalisation of the framework. The group made the following recommendations to the ECSA-HC secretariat:
Integrate responsive caregiving into national policies, strategies and services including into in-service and pre-service training curricula
Include key ECD indicators into national health information systems and population-based surveys
Establish an expert committee within ECSA that aims to enhance responsive caregiving for ECD across the ECSA region.
Following the presentation, delegates expressed interest in learning more about nurturing care and knowledge sharing about indigenous parenting practices that support optimal child development and well-being. In his closing remarks, the permanent secretary – administration, Ministry of Health Zambia noted the importance of investing in early childhood across the ECSA region.
Moving forward, AfECN is excited to continue it’s engagement with ECSA-HC and work towards the establishment of a Responsive Caregiving technical working group within the ECSA platform.