Job/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

1. The World Organization of Early Childhood (OMEP) is an international, non-governmental and non-profit organization concerned with all aspects of early childhood education and care. They defend and promote the rights of the child to education and care worldwide. They are established in 70 countries and are represented at meetings of UNESCO, UNICEF, and other international organizations (OMEP, 2013). Their activities toward working for children worldwide include:

• Promotes studies and research related to early childhood education and care,
• Disseminates information about early childhood education and care all over the world,
• Encourages training of early childhood care and education staff, and
• Encourages family education in connection with early childhood and education.

Under their 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda their goal is to ensure all children get the best start in life and for learning. Their target areas include:

• Target 1: Ensure that all children are healthy, socially and culturally competent, and respectful of diversity and learning successfully.
• Target 2: Increase the number of children experiencing positive, responsive, sensitive and nurturing child-rearing practices is safe and peaceful environments.
• Target 3: Ensure equitable access to quality, inclusive, and sustainable early childhood programs and services (OMEP, 2015).

OMEP appealed to me because of the work they are doing internationally to promote the rights of children and ensure they are being defended. They provide a lot of research with regard to education and outreach, policy and advocacy, action, and research. They provide a lot of resources for early childhood professionals, as well as early childhood news from around the world.

2. The International Child Resource Institute (ICRI) envisions a world in which all children and families are able to fulfill their greatest potential. They work towards this goal by focusing on:

• Early childhood care and education,
• Children’s rights,
• Empowerment of women and girls,
• Maternal and child health, and
• Grassroots community development.

With regard to early childhood care and education, ICRI denotes that all children deserve to have access to high-quality, stimulating, developmentally appropriate early childhood care and education (ICRI, n.d.). I really like how ICRI, does a lot of work around the world with regard to projects in different countries. For example, they have done some work in Malaysia around child advocacy, early childhood education, and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation. They also do some consulting work with early childhood programs to help upgrade their programs. They provide consultation and technical assistance work to programs that help with:

• Child care facility design and development
• Needs assessment
• Program design, development, and implementation
• Strategic planning
• Program administration
• Resource procurement
• Legislative and policy planning support
• Training and capacity building

They seem like a great resource to have to connect with issues and trends in the early childhood field globally, as well as assist with needs in your local community.

3. Plan International was founded over 75 years ago and is one of the oldest and largest child development organizations in the world. They work across 50 developing countries to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty. Their vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Their mission aims to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of deprived children in developing countries, through a process that unites people across cultures and adds meaning and value to their lives, by:

• Enabling deprived children, their families and their communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies
• Building relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries
• Promoting the rights and interests of the world’s children (Plan, n.d.).

A job opportunity that looked to be of interest to me, posted by Plan International was for an advocacy and campaigns officer. The position entails reporting to the Head of Advocacy, focusing on supporting advocacy coordination across the organization, developing and disseminating internal communications, coordinating external communications products and maintaining the policy, advocacy and campaigns networks across Plan. This position works directly out of their headquarters in the United Kingdom.

The requirements for this position include; be an effective communicator, with good understanding of the development sector and, ideally, child rights work. Effective coordination and organization skills, a flair for writing and use of social media and solid analytical skills will back this up. A second language, especially French or Spanish, would be a great advantage.

This position is interesting to me because I haven’t done a lot of advocacy work, so it would challenge me and require me to use skills that I have never used before. I think it would be great to do some advocacy work for children and families across the globe and see how other countries advocate for the rights of children.

References

International Child Resource Institute. (n.d.). Our vision. Retrieved from http://www.icrichild.org

OMEP. (2013). World organization for early childhood education. Retrieved from http://www.worldomep.org

Plan International. (n.d.). What we do. Retrieved from https://plan-international.org/what-we-do-0