United in a vision of a world where all children enter school with the skills to learn, succeed and prosper, the African Union, the Global Partnership for Education, UNICEF, the Africa early childhood network, the World Bank and Global Citizen are calling on world leaders and the global community to take collective and complementary action to achieve transformational and cost-effective change for young children and nations.

They recognize that investing in the foundations of learning, in quality early childhood education for all, is a proven solution to closing learning gaps, strengthening education systems, providing a solid foundation for human capital development and supporting a country’s goals for economic growth and development.

In their call to action statement, they invite world leaders to take action on five interlinked areas crucial to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for universal access to quality pre-primary education by 2030, by:

• Raising the profile of early childhood education at high-level globally
• Making early childhood education a priority in education sector plans
• Increasing domestic and international financing for early childhood education
• Committing to improve early childhood education systems’ and quality
• Targeting and aligning their investments in early childhood education to galvanize political support and resources and align their efforts to deliver on SDG 4.2.