15,000 voices rise up: Act For Early Years launch in Colombia
Participants at the launch of the Actuemos por la Primera Infancia campaign show their signed Minifestos
Thousands of people in Colombia are uniting to urge the government to act now and make early childhood their top priority.
A Colombian version of the Act For Early Years campaign was launched at an event that brought together hundreds of leaders from the national Congress, the public sector, businesses, and civil society, as well as early childhood experts.
The Actuemos por la Primera Infancia campaign aims to grow a movement of 15,000 people and persuade national leaders to guarantee the rights of young children and invest in quality childcare and pre-primary education across the country.
Today, fewer children under five in Colombia attend community centres, kindergartens, child development centres or schools than in 2015. And OECD data shows that 84% of Colombian children aged four were enrolled in early childhood education in 2023.
Participants at the event signed copies of a Spanish-language version of the Act For Early Years ‘Minifesto’, which calls for all countries to provide universal access to quality primary healthcare, preschool education and family support including affordable childcare.
Congresswoman Lorena Rios with her signed Act For Early Years ‘Minifesto’
The Colombian version of Act For Early Years was adapted to the national context by the Bogota-based organisation Red PaPaz. Tatiana Agudelo Londoño, early childhood lead at Red PaPaz, said: “With this campaign, we will work to mobilise decision-makers and civil society around the urgent call to recognise early childhood as the number one priority.”
Carolina Piñeros, Executive Director of Red PaPaz, added: “Investing in children from 0 to 8 years is the best social and economic investment any country can make. Colombia’s current underinvestment represents a broken promise to its youngest citizens. We are mobilising families, communities, academia and civil society to ensure that every child’s right to grow, learn and thrive becomes a political and budgetary priority.”
Founded in 2003, the Colombian non-profit organisation advocates for the rights of children and adolescents and the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
Red PaPaz developed its own visual assets from the Act For Early Years campaign. Using the style guide and slogans, they translated key messages into Spanish for social media posts and a video with its own Colombian campaign song. Watch the video below.
At the launch event, Congresswoman Lorena Rios said: “For the first time in 16 years, Congress now has a legal commission to oversee investment in childhood and adolescence. We have introduced a bill to create a budget tracker, a key tool to ensure that resources are truly allocated to this population.
“Today Colombia invests only 0.8% of its GDP, well below the 1.16% recommended by UNICEF, UN Women and ECLAC – we need this investment to be prioritised in both national and territorial development plans.”
Act For Early Years has also developed a Campaign Action Pack to empower other early childhood advocates and partner organisations around the world to follow Red PaPaz’s lead and take meaningful action using our tools, resources and guidance.
Download the Campaign Action Pack
The action pack has everything needed for campaigners to:
- Align their efforts with the global campaign to maximise impact
- Access campaign assets and ready-to-use communications materials
- Connect with a global network of early years champions
- Drive local change while contributing to shared global goals for early childhood
The Campaign Action Pack shows how Red PaPaz developed its own visual assets
Ben Hewitt, global lead for the Act For Early Years campaign, said: “It’s inspiring to see a global movement taking shape – from Colombia to Brazil, South Africa to Indonesia – with experts, networks, and early childhood champions uniting to call on world leaders to Act For Early Years.”
Globally, the Act For Early Years campaign calls for at least $1 billion in new early childhood funding and for the first-ever International Financing Summit on Early Years to be held by 2027, where new commitments will be made.
Those calls are repeated in the ‘Minifesto’ – a child-sized document urging leaders to make big investments in the littlest children. It has been signed by a growing list of global leaders, including government ministers, celebrities, LEGO Foundation, Roger Federer Foundation, Sesame Workshop, UNICEF and UNESCO.
The Campaign Action Park details how organisations can use the ‘Minifesto’ to encourage leaders in their own country, network or sector to sign it and promote the campaign.
