What We Do.

The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority aims to promote collaboration to help all of Abu Dhabi's young children flourish through four sectors: Health and Nutrition, Child Protection, Family Support, and Education and Early Care, from the initial stages of pregnancy to the age of eight.

Area of Our Focus

Child Protection

Secure
- Aware of surroundings and safely participates in community life

Safe From Harm and Danger
- Protected from sexual abuse
- Free from hazards in their physical environment
- Protected from physical abuse, neglect, violence, and exploitation
- Protected from psychological neglect and abuse

Early Care & Education

Sociable
- Aware of social conventions and behaves well with others
- Expresses feelings appropriately

Academic Competence
- Demonstrates emerging logical thinking and problem solving skills
- Uses and consumes technology appropriately and responsibly Performs adequately in math, science, and reading
- Communicates eﬀectively in their native language

Health & Nutrition

Adequately nourished
- Eats nutritious foods by following a healthy diet

Emotionally Secure
- Copes with stress and adversity appropriately
- Treats adults and peers with kindness Positive sense of self
- Feels valued and respected by primary caregivers
- Positive and supportive relationships with peers

Emotionally and Physically Secure
- Adequate ﬁne and gross motor skills and coordination
- Participates regularly in exercise, sports, and active play

Family Support

ValuesOriented
- Respects diﬀerent cultures, practices and beliefs Strong sense of national pride
- family, friends, and community members with respect

Stable & Secure Home Environment
- Has a place called “home”
- Parents who can provide an adequate standard of living, loving and caring family relationship
- Supportive network of parents and caregivers
- Parents and caregivers who actively nurture their development and well-being

Child Protection

Early Care & Education

Health & Nutrition

Family Support

Our Mission

To accelerate excellence, innovation and impact in ECD

Our Role

We promote collaboration to help all of Abu Dhabi’s young children ﬂourish.

Enabler

We broaden the capabilities of our partners to support holistic child development.

Policy Inﬂuencer

Inform and influence the development and implementation of ECD policies

Knowledge Hub

We inform decision-making through research, data and evidence.

Impact Navigator

Monitor progress of the ECD ecosystem and impact for the community

Incubator

Nurture the growth and sustainability of innovative ECD programs and services

Abu Dhabi's Early Childhood Development Strategy for 2035

Every young child can ﬂourish to their full potential in a safe and family friendly environment

Cross Sectorial Focus Areas Are:

Early Care & Education

Family Support

Child Protection

Health & Nutrition

Strengthen the child protection system from prevention to rehabilitation

Develop a unified child protection system for Abu Dhabi that offers coherent strategies for preventing abuse and neglect, reporting cases efficiently and effectively and providing treatment and rehabilitation as needed.

Deliver a sufficient and capable ECD workforce

Design and implement interventions to ensure Abu Dhabi has a high quality Early Childhood Development workforce with sufficient skills and in sufficient numbers to ensure the effective implementation and delivery of the Abu Dhabi ECD Strategy 2035.

Enhance support for parents and primary caregivers

Equip parents and primary caregivers with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to build their capabilities to promote the healthy development of their children. This includes interventions to foster positive interactions and effective parenting and caregiver practices, eliminate misconceptions, enhance their ability to detect potential developmental delays or medical concerns, and provide professional resources for all of the above.

Make Abu Dhabi a family friendly Emirate

Enhance Abu Dhabi's liveability for young children and caregivers by fostering positive behavioral shifts and ensuring public spaces are healthy, safe, and accessible to all families. This will be achieved through interventions to adapt existing infrastructure and public spaces to the needs of families and establishing new public spaces focused on providing opportunities for children's

development.

Nurture positive cultural identity and social cohesion

This program aims to nurture cultural identity in a positive way among young children, to create a sense of social cohesion and collective belonging in Abu Dhabi. This will be achieved through interventions both aiming to reinforce shared values and unity among the diverse cultures of Abu Dhabi children, and through educating all young children on the Emirati culture. For Emirati children in particular, the latter will extend to interventions reinforcing and strengthening their Emirati identity and values.

Strengthen the ECD research ecosystem and outcomes

Increase the volume and quality of actionable research on local ECD research to stimulate and enhance an active and sustainable ECD research ecosystem which generates knowledge in alignment with local needs and priorities.

Ensure high- impact ECD policy & legislation

Execute a dedicated process for ECD-related policy and legislation development that is proactive, iterative, participatory, evidence- based and has strong impact-assessment, enforcement, and implementation components. In addition, review and influence current policies and legislation and propose policies as required to fill existing ECD-related gaps, promote high-quality services and strong child outcomes.

Drive excellence & innovation in ECD

Develop and implement systems and platforms to collect, track and monitor and evaluate data to provide policy-relevant, actionable insights about children, parents, the ECD workforce, and ECD services. Additionally, enable an innovative private sector ecosystem to deliver relevant ECD products and services.

Enhance public engagement and partnerships in the ECD ecosystem

Lead efforts to enhance awareness of the importance of the early years, build the capabilities of parents and other adults to support child well-being, and foster changes in behavior to benefit children. Additionally, promote and facilitate active engagement and partnerships between all relevant stakeholders within Abu Dhabi’s ECD ecosystem.

Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority Board of Trustees

H.H. Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Chairman of the Office of Development and Martyrs Families Affairs at the Presidential Court
Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority

H.H. Sheikha Mariam bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Member

H.H. Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Member

H.E. Mansour Al Mansouri

Member of the Executive Council Chairman of the Department of Health

Member

H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili

Member of the Executive Council Chairman of the Department of Community Development

Member

H.E. Sara Awad Issa Musallam

Member of the Executive Council Chairman of the Department of Education and Knowledge

Member

H.E. Chancellor Ali Mohammed Abdullah Al Balooshi

Attorney General of Abu Dhabi

Member

H.E. Al Reem Abdullah Al Falasi

Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood

Member

The inspiration behind our logo

As with all our work, we keep young children at the heart of all we do. And our logo is no exception. The icon forms the shape of a balancing child, implying stability and suggesting development, achievement, strength and growth. The logo, once rotated 90 degrees, also represents the first letters of the full name of the Authority in Arabic.

Our logo is also inspired by the typeface created by Nasri Khattar in the 1950s. He created it as a way to help make the Arabic language more accessible and easier to learn and was nominated for a Nobel Prize for this effort.