Verbatim About AfC-ECD from Addis Ababa Mayor Honorable Adanech Abiebie
“It is Not Only Ours; it is a Center for All Africans.”
“The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Center of Excellence will make a huge difference. We need to be able to back our ECD efforts with knowledge, information, and research. We should make these efforts with thoughtful attention.

It cannot be a routine work process just as we do in our day-to-day work integrating it with other activities. Therefore, the Center was established as an autonomous institution with a special focus and with an independently designated office. The Center is not only just for Ethiopia.

We started the ECD initiative here in Ethiopia and our cities have adapted this initiative as well. It has grown to a national level. It is a center where we provide trainings, lead the ECD program, and generate knowledge and information.

We, Africans must join hands. We have been wasting time and now we should not allow it to be wasted in the years to come. If we do not join hands now, our challenges as Africans will continue. Our children and the next generation should not bear the same challenge.

That is why we have made it an African Center of Excellence. It is not only for Ethiopia but also for Africa. Several African countries are now taking this initiative and working on it.

So, it will serve as an African Center, where knowledge, information, research results are available about children of Africa, and where we can help and learn from each other.

We don’t get experience from just one place. We share experiences among ourselves as Africans. Today, we share the experience of Addis Ababa to our sisters and brothers from Mombasa, tomorrow we will learn from Mombasa, and we will learn from other African countries as well.

Having a center where we can meet and share various experiences and offer trainings, connect with each other, will make us more effective. Because it is not only ours, but it is also a center for Africa.

Therefore, I would like to urge all Africans to make use of the Center of Excellence.”