The impact of Early Childhood Care and Development services on Women’s empowerment in Albania Table of Contents
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- Map of Albania
- List of tables and graphs
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- I. Introduction
The impact of ECD services in women’s Presented by: Ana María Rodríguez R empowerment in vulnerable communities Email: anamar.rodriguez@gmail.com Presented to: UNICEF’s Albanian Country Office Mobile: +57 312 5319373 The impact of Early Childhood Care and Development services on Women’s empowerment in Albania Table of Contents Map of Albania 1 List of acronyms 2 List of tables and graphs 3 Acknowledgements 4 I. Introduction 4 II. Presentation 5 III. Women’s empowerment, child care and child development 5 IV. Methodology 8 V. Country context 12 Social and demographic context 12 Albanian women in the labor market and the community 15 Situation of children’s rights in Albania 16 VI. Early Childhood and Development services in Albania 20 VII. Results 22 VIII. Final discussion 31 IX. Recommendations 34 Bibliography 36 Appendixes 38 Map of Albania
List of acronyms
List of tables and graphs
AcknowledgementsThis study was possible thanks to the efforts of the UNICEF Albania Country Office , Ms. Linda Bushati – UNICEF Early Childhood Development Officer, and Ms. Alketa Zazo, UNICEF Youth and Adolescent Development Officer. Fieldwork, data collection and processing was done by the team of the Albanian Social Services Association, headed by Livia Nano, MSC. Many thanks to all public officers from the National, Regional and Local level who agreed to talk to us, members of the International Organizations, private sector and mothers and fathers of Albanian children who participated in this research. I. IntroductionInternational evidence shows that women’s empowerment is correlated with the possibility of their entering the job market, amongst other variables1. The world’s tendency during the last decades has been an accelerated increase in participation of women in the labor market2. This has led to a decrease of the number of children being born, a tendency to marry later in life, an increase in household salaries, and women tend to go back to work earlier after childbirth. This has motivated policy makers, activists and governments to undertake gender issues in a more active way, changing legislation, policy and programming in order to adapt to this new reality. Amongst many of the social and economic effects this tendency has on families and society in general, child care becomes an issue that needs to be studied and fully understood in order to act in a coherent way taking into consideration the best interest of the child as the priority and principle that guides all actions3 and that above all, guarantees the adequate integral development of all children during their early years. This study focuses on the current situation of vulnerable women who have children under 6 years of age in Albania, on the Early Childhood Development – ECD services that exist in the country and the relationship between the two of them. This implies that it is not enough to look into gender policies, programmes and context, but it is fundamental to understand the situation of children’s rights, which also includes policies, programming and general understanding of childhood in the country4. The scope of the study is based on quality and coverage of ECD services in order to allow mothers of children under 6 to have the option of accessing the job market or having free time for leisure or other activities that will increase the levels of empowerment of vulnerable Albanian women. Given Albanian recent achievements and development in legislation, policy and programming for gender and children’s issues, it is not a surprise that the coverage levels are very high and although they are not yet universal, there is a clear intention to achieve this goal in the coming years. Quality is a concern of policy makers, local actors and caregivers and it is an issue that needs work and resources in order to continue improving. There is sufficient evidence that programming for ECD services must be of the highest quality as poor quality services have a very negative impact on child development5. Also, mothers will more likely leave their small children in services that guarantee better quality. Directory: albania albania -> Communications strategy albania -> Various structural reforms in albania Download 247.72 Kb. Share with your friends:
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