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Expert Consultancy

Our highly skilled team offers tailored consultancy services to members, partners, and other clients, delivering customized technical assistance to meet specific needs. We specialize in enhancing service quality, developing frameworks that promote inclusive policies and services, and creating customized training programs. Additionally, we support local governments with tools, capacity building, and targeted projects focused on early childhood development. By addressing unique challenges and opportunities, our place-based interventions are designed to be both effective and sustainable, empowering local actors and ensuring long-lasting benefits for the communities we serve. Here we share examples of interventions in recent years across two main categories:

System-Level Capacity Building

Training of Professionals

 

System-Level Capacity Building

Road map for implementing ECD workforce competencies  | United Arab Emirates 

The ISSA Secretariat developed a roadmap to prepare the system-wide implementation of ECD Workforce Competencies across early childhood sectors in United Arab Emirates.

Partner: Early Childhood Authority of Abu Dhabi

Professional development tools and guidelines | United Arab Emirates   

ISSA developed a Professional Development Tool (PDT), and Guidelines for the usage of the Tool operationalizing ECD competencies to foster self-improvement among ECD professionals and encourage professional growth.

Partner: Early Childhood Authority of Abu Dhabi

Home-visitation systems | Turkmenistan, UNICEF 

In cooperation with the Curatio Sarl consulting group, we conducted an assessment of existing home-visiting services in Turkmenistan, created home-visiting cards to guide home visits, formulated a home-visiting training package, trained professionals, and contributed to the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework.

Diagnostic Study of Early Childhood Education | Georgia

ISSA Secretariat joined ISSA member in Georgia, the Center for Preschool and Inclusive Education at the Child Development Institute in Tbilisi, in a consortium alongside PPMI (Lithuania) and Leuven University (Belgium) to provide consultancy services to the Ministry of Education in Georgia. The aim was to develop a diagnostic study on the preschool education system in Georgia. The resulting study was part of a larger project funded by the World Bank and aimed at improving the access, quality and inclusiveness of the Georgian preschool system, as well as the horizontal and vertical governance system. As part of this, ISSA trained national researchers to conduct classroom observations with the ISSA Instrument for Assessing Quality Practices in ECEC Services.

Partner: PPMI Group

Support in scaling-up programs and boosting impact | Czech Republic and Switzerland 

To prepare plans for scaling up their existing ideas and programs and accelerate their impact, the ISSA Secretariat provided continuous support and guidance to the following organizations: Leontinka (Czech Republic) and the Marie Meierhofer Children’s Institute (Switzerland) – grantees of the Human Safety Net.

Partner: Generali Foundation and The Human Safety Net, in close cooperation with the Soft Tulip (the Netherlands) and Step by Step Center for Education and Professional Development (Romania).

Technical support to help connect vulnerable families and EC services | Europe 

ISSA Secretariat conducted a literature review on the research topic of: Why do the most vulnerable families in Europe not use ECEC services? Additionally, ISSA developed evidence-based guiding principles for effective outreach and engagement to address the issue.

Partner: King Baudouin Foundation

Development of a Diagnostic Study of Early Childhood Education (ECE) | Georgia

Within a consortium, and with its Member in Georgia, the Centre for Preschool and Inclusive Education at Ilia University, the ISSA Secretariat contributed to the development of a diagnostic study. ISSA’s role entailed elaborating the research instruments to collect data across the ECEC Georgian system. Additionally, Issa assisted in employing the Instrument for Assessing Quality Practice during observations in kindergartens. Lastly, ISSA developed case studies on seven municipalities in Georgia across multiple dimensions of the ECEC systems.

Partner: Ministry of Education and Science
 

 

Training of Professionals

Step by Step methodology | Bosnia Hercegovina, ISSA Member Center for Educational Initiatives, Step by Step

The Regional Training on Child-Centred, Democratic Classrooms was delivered to ISSA Members from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia. The training session was hosted by the Center for Educational Initiatives, Step by Step, in October 2023.

Training for kindergarten teachers | Balkans 

Under the EU project to increase education opportunities for Roma youth in the Western Balkans and Turkey, the ISSA Secretariat in partnership with its Members provided assistance to the Roma Education Fund, for developing and conducting training for kindergarten practitioners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Turkey. Partner: Roma Education Fund.

In collaboration with: Center for Educational Initiatives Step by Step in Bosnia; the Kosovo Educational Center; Step by Step Center in Albania; and the Foundation for Education and Cultural Initiatives Step by Step North Macedonia.

Crisis response master training program | Slovakia, ISSA Member Skola Dokoran

A master training program, engaging parents and fostering outdoor play, was provided for staff members from six non-formal Play Hubs that opened in 2022. Financial support came from the UNICEF country office in Slovakia. The program was aimed at supporting young refugee children and families who had fled the war in Ukraine.

Training of Trainers for Play and Learning Hubs | Slovakia  

The ISSA Secretariat supported its Member organization Skola Dokoran by providing a Training of Trainers for staff members from the six Play Hubs opened in 2022 with financial support from the UNICEF Country Office in Slovakia. The non-formal centres aimed to support young refugee children and families who fled the war in Ukraine.

Partner: Skola Dokoran

Development and Piloting of Training Modules on Gender-Responsive Parenting | Europe and Central Asia 

With the purpose of introducing and promoting a gender-transformative approach to parenting programs in eight UNICEF Country Offices, and as part of UNICEF’s work on parenting programs, ISSA conducted a global mapping of current parenting programmes and developed a resource package on gender-transformative parenting. Additionally, ISSA organized an in-person Training of Trainers, and provided support to eight UNICEF country offices in the roll-out of the modules. The learnings from the pilots were consolidated in a report with recommendations for scaling up.

Partner: UNICEF Europe and Central Asia (ECARO)

Mapping of a gender transformative program in preschool and primary school | Portugal, Spain, and Croatia

ISSA supported the European Commission-funded project “Kinder” by mapping a gender transformative program in preschool and primary school. Additionally, a chapter was developed for a manual on gender transformative educational programs and approaches.

Partner: Centre for Social Studies, Portugal

Professional development workshops for directors of early years centres | Singapore

The ISSA Secretariat facilitated workshops and worked in collaboration with ISSA Members to provide participants with hands-on activities and examples on how to link theory to practice, and how to interact and support early childhood practitioners. The training also included virtual site visits.

Partner: Association for Early Childhood Educators Singapore. In close collaboration with ISSA Members: Step by Step/Bambi Kindergarten (Romania), Hestia Early Learning Centers (the Netherlands), the Pobrezje, Hans Christian Andersen and Otona Župancica kindergartens (Slovenia), and the Tierlantuin kindergarten (Belgium).