ECA to showcase three innovative projects at GITEX Technology Week 2020

The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) is set to take part in Abu Dhabi government’s pavilion at GITEX Technology Week 2020, to be held from 6-10 December 2020, at Dubai World Trade Center. ECA intends to showcase its projects dedicated to collecting, tracking, analyzing and using data to obtain updated information on children, parents, caregivers and early childhood practitioners, to provide them with integrated services and assess the quality of ECD’s services.

In this regard, Dr. Yousef Al Hammadi, Acting Executive Director of Knowledge & Impact Sector at ECA, said: “As part of Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Strategy 2035, ECA is working on developing a new sophisticated AI-based ecosystem to support ECD-related research, thus contributing to making future decisions, developing legislation, and guiding the planning process. In addition, ECA is creating integrated platforms to promote innovation and creativity in ECD sector.”

According to Al Hammadi, ECA will showcase three of its innovative projects at one of the most important tech events in the world. The first project titled “ECD Macrotrends and Mindset Shifts due to COVID-19”, allows ECA to gather signals on the cultural shifts due to COVID-19, and focuses on young children and families during this pandemic. The ECA’s Child Insights System is the second project to be showcased at GITEX 2020, aims to integrate relevant child data into a single cohesive view, which will help in understanding multi-sectoral dependencies better and subsequently will drive the creation of improved policies and targeted interventions.

Furthermore, ECA will showcase its Parents’ Platform, the first of its kind that targets early childhood in the region. This aims to provide parents and caregivers with curated content and resources, helping them support the holistic development and wellbeing of their children from pregnancy to 8 years old, Dr. Al Hammadi stated. 

In line with its vision to ensure that every young child is healthy, confident, curious, able to learn and develop strong values in a safe, family-friendly Abu Dhabi, ECA seeks to design a dedicated process for ECD-related policy and legislation development.  The process is defined as a proactive, iterative, participatory, evidence-based one, with strong enforcement and implementation components. In addition, the Authority is reviewing and adjusting current policies and legislation, as well as issuing new policies and/or legislation as required to fill existing ECD-related gaps, promote high-quality services and with the end goal of establishing strong child outcomes.