By Lodu William Odiya
South Sudan has launched a National Early Childhood Development Network to strengthen coordination and investment in young children.
In a statement by the Save the Children press unit, the occasion brought together government officials, civil society, development partners, academia, and other stakeholders to strengthen coordination and advance Early Childhood Development (ECD) as a national priority.
The high-level forum in Juba brought together national and sub-national leaders, including representatives from all 10 states and three administrative areas, alongside civil society organisations and development partners.
The network aimed to address longstanding gaps in coordination, financing and policy implementation across ECD, where different actors have often worked through fragmented systems across education, health, nutrition, child protection and other sectors.
The launch also seeks to strengthen attention to the full 0–8 age continuum, including children aged 0–2 and those aged 6–8, who have historically received less attention within broader ECD frameworks.
Celine Grace Peter, Director General for Child Welfare – Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare (MGCSW), said eighty per cent of children’s brains require nurturing.
“Children complete their body development from the age of 0 to 5 years old. During this time, 80 per cent of the child’s brain develops, and it requires nurturing, caring, protection, and health,” she said.
The network is intended to provide a platform for stronger collaboration between government and civil society and to improve coordination of ECD services and planning from the national level to states, counties, and payams.
The initiative is led by the Science Teachers’ Initiative (STI), with Save the Children as co-chair and technical support from the African Early Childhood Network (AfECN). The process follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed between STI and the Ministry of General Education and Instruction in March 2026.
The next phase will focus on strengthening sub-national ECD coordination structures and developing localised approaches across the 10 states and three administrative areas. State and sub-national leaders will support the mapping of ECD actors, coordination of services, and decentralised strategic planning.
Otieno Isaac, who works as PDQ Director for Save the Children, emphasised collective responsibility to make the program essential.
“For a young child, health, nutrition, protection, and learning are inseparable. A child needs nourishing food, a caring adult, safety, and opportunities to play and explore. Our collective responsibility is to make these essentials available from the earliest years so that every child has the chance to grow and learn with confidence,” he said.
The children whose futures we are discussing are growing today, or some are yet to be born. The care they receive and the opportunities they have now will shape the years ahead. Let us give this network the commitment it needs to make a lasting difference for them,” Otieno added.
According to Save the Children, the forum would also seek to secure a shared commitment through the Juba Declaration on Early Childhood Development, bringing national and sub-national leaders together around coordinated planning, implementation, and resource alignment.
The establishment of the SSNECDN marks a step towards building a more coordinated national ECD system, with the longer-term goal of strengthening coordination at state, county and payam levels and ensuring that children’s early development is reflected in national and local planning.