Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is among the flagship programs of the International Bureau of Education (IBE). This is because ECCE is indispensable for the realization of the mandate of the IBE, which is to support Member States (MS) to establish and to sustain robust education and learning systems that are capable of equitable, inclusive, and resource-efficient provision of quality and development-relevant education and lifelong learning. The IBE executes this mandate through its unwavering focus on curriculum, and its core processes: teaching, learning, and assessment.

IBE’s commitment to ECCE has been supported financially by Dubai Cares, a philanthropy dedicated to improving children’s access to quality primary education and care in developing countries. Financial support from Dubai Cares to IBE has focused on helping Member States shift away fragmented approaches that largely characterize ECCE internationally, and towards promoting ECCE as an operational, multisector, and integrated system in each country.

IBE exercises leadership in ECCE through various means, including co-sponsorship with the Institute for Early Childhood Development (IECD) of the Republic of Seychelles of a biannual ECCE conference. IBE’s co-sponsorship is based in part on support from Dubai Cares.

The ECCE system prototype has been tested and discussed in the Kingdom of eSwatini, the Republic of Cameroon, the Lao Popular Democratic Republic and the Republic of Rwanda.

These Countries constituted a sort of test-ground for the first version of the prototype and of the HECDI.