Introduction

In the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on addressing large movements of refugee and migrants, entitled “New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants”, member states have agreed – in paragraph 82 – to “… support early childhood education for refugee children”. This panel discussion, hosted by the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC), shared the perspectives of early childhood development, policy and programming experts on how to link emerging knowledge from bio-behavioral and environmental sciences with program practices that seek to protect young children, caretakers and their communities from the consequences of war and violent conflict.

Transcripts

Transcripts of presentations made by the event’s distinguished panelists include: 

1. Rima Salah, PhD, Chair of the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) and Volunteer Faculty at the Child Study Centre, Yale University, and H.E. Mr. Horacio Sevilla, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations
2. H.E. Mr. Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations
3. Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict
4. Ghassan Issa, General Coordinator, Arab Resource Collective (ARC); Director, Arab Network for Early Childhood Care and Development (ANECD)
5. James F. Leckman, Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychology and Pediatrics at Yale University
6. Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Founder of The Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP)
7. H.E. Mr. David Donoghue, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations

Other event resources

1. Event Flyer/Agenda: The Transformative Power of Early Childhood Development Actions in Migration & Refugee Situations
2. Indicators | Early Childhood Development for Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development Goals