About this Learning Community

The Early Childhood Development Learning Community was launched in March 2007 in KwaZulu Natal, at a 5-day workshop of all the members.

The ECD Learning Community is owned by 16 Early Childhood Development NGOs in South Africa who, in partnership with the Bernard van Leer Foundation, have established an Early Childhood Development Learning Community.

Its purpose is to improve the quality of practice in the field and to seek ways to cooperatively and positively influence policy-making and implementation.

A variety of activities have been planned and some begun:

1. Every 6 months a 4-day retreat workshop of all members will take place where practices and experiences will be shared and reflected on, learnings drawn and concepts and principles explored and expanded.  Resources will be displayed and shared. Ideas will will be creatively stimulated. Plans for collaborating will be made;

2. 30 horizontal cross-visits have been made possible to enable members and their constituents to visit and learn from each other on-site, first-hand, and to build relationships across the provinces.

3. This website will enable the sharing of documents, resources, articles, manuals, toolkits, stories etc. as well as to provide an avenue for different kinds of communication.

4. After 2 years, a writeshop will be held culminating in a joint publication of some kind.