Jakarta. Tanoto Foundation and the government partnered to hold the 2024 International Symposium on Early Childhood Education and Development in Jakarta earlier this week.

The organization's government partners included the Coordinating Ministry for Cultural Affairs and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).

The symposium was in response to the lack of attention to early childhood development in Indonesia despite its role in human capital development. Many still consider early childhood development as merely a matter of health and nutrition, although it also touches on responsive care and adequate protection. Indonesia also still needs to better coordinate its service providers as many still work in silos.

The forum, which picked the theme "Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development", aims to bring together experts and stakeholders to share their research and best practices. These experts also brainstormed on ways to better align Indonesia's early childhood development with the Nurturing Care Framework or also locally known as the Holistic and Integrative Early Childhood Development (PAUD HI).

The NCF framework is also used to help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets, especially those related to early childhood, such as improving nutrition, reducing infant mortality, universal access to quality preschool education, and preventing violence and neglect of children.

"This international symposium is expected to encourage the direction of government policy in the preparation of the second phase of the National Action Plan for PAUD HI for 2025-2029, which will be a guide for the implementation of services at the central and regional levels to be even better and in accordance with international standards," Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Arifah Fauzi told the symposium.

According to Arifah, the ministry has several programs, including the so-called Ruang Bersama Merah Putih -- a joint space focusing on women and children protection in villages. It also has the SAPA 129 hotline, as well as a database for gender and children issues.

"We thank the Tanoto Foundation for initiating this symposium. Hopefully, this event will be an important moment to strengthen the synergy between the government, society, and international institutions in supporting holistic integrative early childhood development," continued Arifah.

Woro Srihastuti, a deputy at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Capital, also pushed for synergy between institutions through the Ruang Bersama Merah Putih program.

"The mechanism will be prepared for implementation in 2025-2029. One important thing is to reformulate the PAUD HI measurement instrument because so far there has only been one, namely the Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI). There needs to be a reformulation of the ECDI derivative that is useful for each institution to measure each PAUD HI component,"  Woro said.

Tanoto Foundation Indonesia's country head Inge Kusuma said the first 1,000 days of life is crucial for brain development.

"About 80 percent of brain development occurs in the first three years and the peak of visual sensory, hearing, language, and cognitive development occurs in the first year. If we fail to intervene in child development during the golden period, the impact will be significant for the child's future, and can hinder growth in the next stage of life," Inge said.

“NCF and PAUD HI have provided clear guidelines to ensure that early childhood grows and develops optimally. The challenge is how is our commitment, and its implementation in Indonesia. Hopefully, this symposium strengthens the commitment of related parties, becomes a platform for exchanging knowledge, and strengthens the implementation of PAUD HI,” explained Inge.

The symposium's speakers came from the Coordinating Ministry for Cultural Affairs, Bappenas, Health Ministry, and National Nutrition Agency, among others. There were also representatives from the UNICEF EAPRO, UNICEF Indonesia, WHO, The World Bank, ARNEC, SEAMEO CECCEP, Ishk Tolaram, Tulodo, UPTD PPA Depok, and Tanoto Foundation.