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The objectives of the Second Caribbean Conference on Early Childhood Education included: (1) setting a framework for the development of early childhood programs in the Caribbean; (2) initiating a Plan of Action to address early childhood issues in the Caribbean in terms of policy, structure, and implementation; and (3) facilitating the networking of early childhood education professionals. Following an introduction outlining the companies aims and objectives, the sections of the report are: (1) "The Value of Early Childhood Education and Development--the Case for Investment"; (2) "Challenges and Opportunities in the Caribbean"; (3) "A Quest for Quality"; (4) "Integrated Approaches"; (5) "Mobilizing Support"; and (6) "The Next Stage." The report's appendices contain a Caribbean Plan of Action, an adopted resolution, a situation analysis, list of conference documents, list of participants, and the agenda. (EV)

This collection of panel proceedings is divided into five sections each of which is devoted to one panel. Panel 1 focused on mobilization, people's participation, and decentralization for "Education For All (EFA)." Panel 2 was devoted to external and internal financial resources for EFA (Government of India). Panel 3 was on girls' and women's education, women's empowerment, and population issues. Panel 4 was on education and society. The fifth panel was a special panel devoted to India's District Primary Education Program. Participating nations were Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan. After a scene setting discussion at the beginning of a pre-summit session when delegates considered the analysis and synthesis paper prepared by UNESCO, they spent the rest of the three day conference taking part in the four panel discussions that centered on the main themes of the forthcoming Delhi Declaration. Before the conference, delegates had been presented with background papers on the themes that were enlarged upon by panelists from the United Nations agencies and representatives and ministers of the 9 states. Together these 9 countries account for more than half the world's population and 75 percent of its illiterates. They are cradles of civilization and founts of spiritual, cultural, and philosophical knowledge that continue to have a profound influence on humanity. Despite differing cultures and historical legacies, the countries have recognized that education is at the heart of sustainable development. (DK)

Highlights of a workshop (held in Bangkok, December 1986) on research perspectives and prospects concerning the learning environment of early childhood are discussed. Researchers and early childhood educators from seven Asian and Pacific nations and resource persons from four continents attended. Participants were asked to explore the home and community environment of preschool children in disadvantaged areas. Participants were to consider implications of the outcomes of their deliberations for the design of home- and institution-based programs in preschool and early primary school education. An introduction in Chapter One is followed by Chapter Two's report on common themes and findings of research reviews and background papers prepared for the workshop. Topics include: (1) community attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions; (2) parental self-image; (3) language stimulation; (4) emotional responsiveness of caregivers; (5) opportunities for exploratory play and appropriate play materials; and (6) behavioral restrictions and types of discipline. Strengths in the children's environments are listed. Chapter Three outlines theoretical frameworks for research. Chapter Four offers conclusions and discusses implications for research and programs. Three appendices provide research outlines, a program design outline, and a list of participants. (RH)

This report summarizes the proceedings of UNICEF's Global Innocenti Seminar on "Achieving Gender Equality in Families: The Role of Males." The seminar examined how, as more women become economic providers for families, the role of males in families needs to develop new dimensions so that they can contribute to improved health and education of children, to making women's roles more equitable, and to increasing stability of families. Seminar topics included the following: (1) "Introduction: The Importance of Men in Achieving Gender Equality in Families," stressing the inadequacy of an exclusive focus on women; (2) "The Ongoing Struggle to Define Gender Equality," pointing out historical reasons that gender policy has focused on women; (3) "Gender Roles: How Do They Affect the Child?"; (4) "Social Change and the Loss of the Traditional Family"; (5)"The 'New Man': Male Caretakers and Gender Equality"; (6) "Family Life Cycles: Family, School and Adolescence"; (7) "The Media as Socializer of Gender Roles," detailing the pervasive and demeaning nature of the media; (8) "The Challenge of Programming for Gender Equality: How To Involve Males"; (9) "What Can UNICEF and Others Do?"; and (10) "Recommendations," including suggestions to focus more analysis on the roles of males, developing a life cycle approach for boys as well as girls, and adapting existing policy on gender. A writeup "Incorporating the Role of Fathers in the Situation Analysis: Cape Verde," sample workplans, and a five-item suggested reading list are included in the Appendices. (BGC)

In spring 1994, a seminar involving children's rights activists and researchers was held to examine how the monitoring of children's rights, within the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, supports the monitoring of the goals agreed to at the World Summit for Children. The seminar also reviewed the state of the art of child rights monitoring; examined international, national, and sub-national monitoring efforts; and made recommendations to improve the monitoring of children's rights. This seminar report contains sections covering: (1) the monitoring process, including a discussion of indicators of progress and the need to combine watchdog and measurement activities; (2) the holistic vision of children's rights of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the clusters of survival, development, protection, and participation rights and provisions identified at the seminar; (3) monitoring at national, sub-regional, sub-national, and international levels; (4) partnerships and alliances with non-governmental agencies, the research community, the media, and computer-based networks; (5) monitoring child rights in emergencies, as in Burundi and Yugoslavia; and (6) recommendations on monitoring in the context of advocacy and political pressure, monitoring for policy formulation and programming, and monitoring for legal enforcement and compliance. (AC)

The World Summit for children was held at the United Nations, New York, on September 30, 1990. The summit set child health goals to be achieved by the year 2000, and offered strategies and guiding principles for achieving the goals. The summit proposed a new ethic for children which called for children's needs to be given high priority in the allocation of resources. The summit considered topics relevant to the problem of world population, and summit panels set goals for various problem areas, including: (1) deaths of children under five years; (2) maternal mortality; (3) malnutrition; (4) pneumonia and diarrhea; (5) lack of immunization; (6) poor control of the number and timing of births; (7) decrease in breastfeeding; (8) lack of basic education; (9) poor water quality and sanitation; (10) inadequate health education; (11) AIDS; (12) Guinea worm disease; (13) vitamin A and iodine deficiencies; (14) and insufficient protection of children at work and during war. The Summit's World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children; the plan of action for implementing the World Declaration; and the 54 articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are included. Tables present worldwide statistics concerning such topics as nutrition, health, education, demography, economics, and women. (BC)

This book contains the statements made by heads of state or government, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the executive director of UNICEF during proceedings at the World Summit for Children in New York in September, 1990. Among the 159 delegations participating, 71 were led by heads of state or government. Deliberations focused on the survival, protection, and development of children, and the implementation of the recommendations of the summit. The sections of the book are arranged according to these four main topics. Each section includes statements, introductory remarks, and commentaries by heads of state or government relevant to the topic of the section. The draft Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children is included. This declaration was read to the summit participants by six children. Appended materials include the report by the prime minister of Canada, who was co-president of the summit; a statement by the president of the United Nations General Assembly; and an index of participating countries. (BC)

The unmet health needs of children, both globally and in the United States, have recently been extensively publicized in the media. Such publicity leads to the question: What can be done about these disturbing conditions? An answer can be seen in the ways in which vast proportions of the world's population, constrained by meager means, few facilities, and a clearly inadequate infrastructure, used what resources they had to make dramatic progress for their children in the 1980s. They empowered people with basic health knowledge and technologies by using every available means: radio, television, the press, teachers and their schools, priests and imams at the village level, commercial channels, and mass participation in health services at the community level. Low-cost measures that have produced major advances in child health include immunization, control of diarrhoeal diseases, breast-feeding of infants, and the practice of monitoring and keeping records of children's growth. The American Academy of Pediatrics can extend the benefits of members' knowledge and skills to unserved children by adhering to the principles guiding primary health care, drawing lessons from industrialized and developing countries, and exercising leadership in child health issues. A list of goals for child and maternal health, education, and development is appended. (RH)

One of every two children in developing nations does not complete primary school and four out of ten adults do not read or write. Of these ten, six are women. There were 44 million illiterate adults in Latin America in 1985, and of the 66 million school age children, 8.5 million were not in school. Thirty million of these children lived in poverty. In 1983, a project was begun with UNESCO/UNICEF in collaboration with interested countries, for the universalization of primary school education and to address problem of illiteracy. This seminar was organized to evaluate literacy programs, analyze national experiences, and search for alternatives to the continuing deterioration in providing basic education. Also examined were the role of education in child development and the factors in Latin America that affect access to education. Among the conditions affecting educational development were malnutrition, unemployment, inadequate facilities, and cultural discrimination. In 1984 a national, rural primary school program was implemented in Bolivia in conjunction with the Universalization of Education program (UPEL). A guide was developed for instructors, as well as a textbook series of 20 stories, related to the themes of infant development, sex education, and responsible parenting. These materials emphasized the participation of women and attempted to strengthen women's cultural identity. The program incorporated teachers and community volunteers. An estimated 10,000 women achieved literacy through the efforts of more than 2,000 community volunteers in the program. A description of various projects in the countries represented at the seminar is provided in an appendix. (NL)

The UNICEF Committee of Australia met in Melbourne (Australia) in August of 1980 to discuss development education. The first part of the proceedings contains the welcoming address, the opening address, and a list of papers delivered. The process, content, critique, and needs of development education are discussed in the first paper. The second paper contains a case study of a 12th grade teaching unit on the topic of the world food problem. A reaction paper is also included. Recommendations from group discussions, which investigated ways in which organizations and systems could further development education, and the summary address are included in the last part of the publication. Included among the recommendations are that development education be promoted as a curriculum perspective that is applicable to all subjects at all levels of education and that the power of the media be utilized to help package and sell such curricula. Commitment, cooperation, communication, and change are necessary. (RM)

The first Innocenti Global Seminar, which was sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), investigated the topic of Early Child Development (ECD). This summary report focuses on the three objectives of the seminar, which were to: (1) review critical issues in the field of child development so as to provide a rationale for investing in ECD programs; (2) examine stategies for the design, implementation, and evaluation of ECD activities, and review UNICEF-supported initiatives; and (3) explore issues in program implementation. To meet the first objective, research on prenatal development, and infant capacities and patterns of interaction, was reviewed. Biological, behavioral, and social factors were examined. For the second objective, a five-category model of ECD programs was delineated. Topics included increased program coverage, funding problems, methods of creating political will, the role of media in promoting ECD, program quality control, training of ECD personnel, and monitoring of programs. Successes and constraints of ECD programs in India, Benin, Nepal, Colombia, and Kenya were appraised. Efforts to address the third objective focused on policy implications; programming challenges; and the contributions of UNICEF. References number 57. Appended are the agenda, a list of participants and speakers, lists of resources and reading materials, and related items. (BC)