The ISSA Conference held on 22-24 October transformed Sofia into a buzzing epicenter of scientific knowledge, innovation and inspiration for early childhood development (ECD). Proudly co-hosted by the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) and the Trust for Social Achievement, the conference gathered 450 ECD professionals from over 50 countries.
It Takes an Early Childhood Ecosystem for All Young Children to Thrive – the central conference theme guided a dynamic mix of participants and discussions in a packed lineup of 140 sessions. Hosted again in person after a five-year pause, the ISSA Conference 2024 is one of the central international events in ECD gathering participants from NGOs, grant-making foundations, research centers, universities, and international organizations to ministerial representatives of education, health, labor, and beyond from 13 countries across Europe and Central Asia. Attendees explored collaborative strategies to strengthen and enhance ECD systems informed by practice, scientific research, and policy-making perspective.
Keynote speaker James Cairns from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, emphasized that considerations around early childhood must extend beyond brain development to include diverse factors that affect children’s overall development and wellbeing. He highlighted how built and natural environments, from homes to green spaces, profoundly shape children’s health and development outcomes, calling for a broader environmental lens to support place-based investments. Mathias Urban, from Dublin University's Early Childhood Research Centre, echoed this call to action, framing early childhood as a “global common good” in need of resilient, justice-oriented systems that address today’s interconnected crises.
140 participants from Bulgaria attended the Conference and 26 presentations by Bulgarian organizations were included in the concurrent sessions program. TSA hosted 5 presentations and facilitated 2 preconference discussions on topics central in our work – ensuring equitable ECD outcomes for vulnerable children through investing in place-based investments in disadvantaged neighborhoods and diversity in the ECD workforce, balancing targeted interventions with universal policies, measuring quality in early years education and fostering Roma parents activism.
The rich Conference program closed with 15 site visits to Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) services organized by TSA and hosted by 4 partner NGOs, 3 kindergartens and 1 school.
View photos and read through the presentations from the conference on the ISSA Conference 2024 Recap page. And please help us spread the word about these exciting developments by sharing this article with others.