CE International and ECDAN Announce Inclusive Education Commitments Ahead of Global Disability Summit

Childhood Education International and the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) are proud to announce a joint inclusive education commitment.

Our organizations recognize disability-inclusive education as a fundamental right and believe that children with disabilities are entitled to the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children. We joined together to submit a commitment to inclusive education ahead of the Global Disability Summit, which will be held April 2-3, 2025.

The commitment focuses on championing the rights and addressing the specific needs of young children, advancing early childhood intervention, influencing policy agendas to prioritize disability-inclusive early childhood development, advocating for increased financing for disability-inclusive programs, strengthening bridges between sectors and movements, fostering collaboration, and countering misinformation.

The full text of our commitment is below. It will also soon be available on the Global Disability Summit Commitments Portal.

The Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) and Childhood Education International (CE International) recognize disability-inclusive education as a fundamental right and that children with disabilities are entitled to the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children.

Despite clear evidence of the critical importance of early intervention and nurturing care to fulfill these rights, millions of young children with disabilities and developmental delays continue to be excluded from essential early childhood services and support systems.

Our Pledge

Through advocacy, knowledge exchange, and systemic, collective action, ECDAN and CE International are committed to ensuring that all young children worldwide have access to quality care and education and elevating disability-inclusive early childhood intervention and development as a global priority in the following ways:

• Championing the rights and addressing the specific needs of all young children, with dedicated focus on those experiencing developmental delays and disabilities;
• Advancing early childhood intervention (ECI), disability-focused and disability-inclusive early childhood development (ECD) policy, practice, training, and service delivery;
• Influencing global, regional, and national integrated health and education policy agendas to prioritize ECI and disability-inclusive ECD;
• Advocating for increased and targeted financing for disability-inclusive programs, teacher training, parent/caregiver support, and integrated systems approaches that ensure no child is left behind;
• Strengthening the bridges between  the disability, child rights, and ECD movements through enhanced cross-sectoral network coordination and collaboration between ECI, ECD, and disability inclusion at local, national, regional, and global levels;
• Fostering collaboration and driving collective impact through the engagement of grassroots networks such as Early Childhood Development Task Force (ECDtf), working groups, and regional and academic partners;
• Countering misinformation and shaping positive perceptions of children with disabilities and their families.

Our Commitments

To meet this commitment, ECDAN and CE International make the following pledges over the next five years toward fulfillment of the rights enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the goals of Agenda 2030:

1. Build bridges across sectors through meaningful engagement of diverse stakeholders. At least 6 times per year, we will leverage our respective networks and global convening platforms to collaborate through a variety of hosted events.
2. Strengthen advocacy capacity and policy development through 10 direct program actions per year in the form of training, workshops, and knowledge sharing. These actions will strengthen the early childhood community’s ability to advance policy reforms that protect the rights of and enhance the well-being of young children with developmental delays and disabilities.
3. Grow and further develop an online community of practice of disability-inclusive education leaders and practitioners, with a target of at least 200 participants in the community of practice throughout the five years, fostering sustainable collective action, capacity strengthening, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.
4. Amplify diverse voices from the field, including parents and caregivers of children with developmental delays and disabilities through strategic storytelling. We will leverage various forms of media, publications, and communications platforms to reach an audience of 95,000 over 5 years.
5. Co-organize the Global Caregiver Forum in 2026 with partners through the Global Initiative to Support Parents to build political commitment and increase investments in parenting support interventions.
6. Advance interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing and dialogue toward locally led solutions for a world in which young children with developmental delays and disabilities can thrive. We will achieve this by growing the ECDtf network by 5-10% per year and providing informational access to at least 600 resources and articles annually through the ECDtf Digest and listserv.

Explore Our Other Global Commitments