UNESCO Tri-Chairs in Early Childhood Education, Care & Development
UNESCO Tri Chairs in Early Childhood Education, Care, and Development (ECD)
2008 – Chair established: Prof. Alan Pence, University of Victoria, Canada
2017 – Co-Chair established: Pence and Prof. Hasina Banu Ebrahim, Univ. of South Africa, South Africa
2021 – Tri-Chairs adopted: Pence, Ebrahim, and Prof. Barry, Universite’ Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal
- The UNESCO Tri-Chairs for Early Childhood Education, Care, and Development (ECD), with Prof. Alan Pence as the Chair-holder, was established in 2008 with a primary focus on the promotion of ECD capacity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The establishment of the Chair was built on Pence’s earlier work in SSA (see below).
- The Chair was subsequently renewed twice, establishing a Co-Chair based in Africa with Prof. Hasina Banu Ebrahim (South Africa—UNISA) in 2017. Having received her PhD only 10 years earlier (2007), Prof. Ebrahim had already established an exceptional, Africa-focused research and publication record—a record that continues to grow from strength to strength.
- For the 2021 renewal, Pence and Ebrahim reached out to noted Francophone ECD Scholar Prof. Oumar Barry (Senegal–UCAD). Barry’s exceptional research and development experiences across much of Francophone Africa added critically important dimensions to the work of the Chair/Tri-Chairs.
- Together the Tri-Chairs, working in close collaboration with self-described ‘millennial’ scholar, Dr. Patrick Makokoro from Zimbabwe, are undertaking new initiatives in support of ECD capacity-development across sub-Saharan Africa. These include, among others: additional proposal development of the Africa Based Child Development (ABCD) initiative and serving as co-editors of the Sankofa volume, due out in 2022.
Sub-Saharan countries (in purple) participating in UNESCO Chair-initiated events:
UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
Note: Most often-used maps make it easy to forget that the landmass of Africa equals that of India, China, the contiguous US, and most of Europe, combined. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/africa-dwarfs-china-europe-and-the-u-s/”.
UNESCO Chair in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development
