CNV: 01/09/2014
Excellencies,
Ladies,
Gentlemen, and Distinguished National and International Guests,
Dear All Participants,
Today, my wife and I are honored and pleased to participate in the launching ceremony of the National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and development 2014-2018. At the outset, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all the participants in this event.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to highly commend the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport for its coordination role and cooperation with relevant ministries-institutions and development partners to formulate the comprehensive National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 that responds to the current situation. I would also like to highly commend the leadership and all levels of officials of relevant ministries-institutions, municipal and provincial offices of all line ministries, local authorities and development partners for the cooperation and concerted effort to promote early childhood care and development in the Kingdom of Cambodia. These are valuable contribution to the Royal Government’s effort to bring about socio-economic development.
In fact, attention on early childhood care and development is not just for now, but since the liberation day on January 7, 1979 that reclaim support, protection, care and rights for children. Childcare has been stipulated in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Law on Education and Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, childhood development has been clearly laid out in the fourth rectangle of the Rectangular Strategy – Phase III, which focuses on the promotion of child welfare and their rights to life, development, protection and participation. Moreover, we also support the establishment of SOS Children’s Villages, Sunrise Children’s Villages and Other Children’s Centers across the country. Recently, we have launched the National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition 2014-2018, reflecting our continuous attention on childhood development in Cambodia.
In fact, the Royal Government has been active in enhancing child nutrition, promoting breastfeeding, supplement of vitamin A for children aged 6 to 59 months and healthcare that leads to the reduction of the maternal and infant mortality rates as well as expanding all forms of early childhood education. In addition, the Royal Government has paid attention to infant and child care by focusing on disease prevention and reduction program for infants and children, diarrhea, respiratory infection, iron deficiency, iodine deficiency, vitamin c deficiency, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS etc. As a result, healthcare for children has been gradually improved, e.g. polio was eradicated in 1998. In addition, the Royal Government has taken concrete measures by developing national five-year rolling plans to fight the trafficking of women and children, support the implementation of related laws and international conventions/treaties and strengthen cooperation with other countries to effectively prevent child trafficking and abuse. The Royal Government is determined to take any measure to prevent all forms of child abuse and exploitation such as illegal child labor, child prostitution and trafficking, child participation in armed conflict and other mistreatments.
Today, we are launching the National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 to continue improving child welfare and respond to latest development of child sector in Cambodia, the region and the world. This demonstrates our intensified commitment to the long-term vision of the Royal Government of Cambodia, which is to build a society filled with peace, political stability, security, order, sustainable and equitable development, promotion of culture and national identity, firm adherence to the principle of multi-party democracy and respect for human rights and dignity, well-connected and educated social actors that have good living standard and live in harmony, at both social and family levels, and good reputation on global stage with equal rights and equal footing as other countries. The new national policy and action plan is another pride of the Royal Government, reflecting its full support and cooperation aimed to enhance child welfare and ensure basic rights of children, including right to life, right to protection, right to development and right to participation.
My wife and I will continue our commitment to children with compassion and love as before. At the same time, I fully support every activity in the Kingdom of Cambodia aimed to address the urgent needs of the children, including the provision of care, protection and education service, promotion of physical and mental development of children, elimination of child trafficking and violence against children, and the promotion of the rights and dignity of the children.
Rapid development in the last decade has brought about a significant change, including the livelihood as well as lifestyle. This creates new needs for children that we must pay attention to in order to expose them to new ways of thinking and transform them into educated, skilled and competent work force as well as highly potential and dynamic youth to succeed our socio-economic development effort to realize our ambition to become an upper middle income country in 2030 and a developed country in 2050.
In short, during early childhood, which starts from birth to below the age of 6, parents or guardians must provide care, nutritional food, healthcare and behavioral education. This is an important step toward the promotion of physical development, health, morality, culture as well as mental development and thinking capability of children. Meanwhile, the majority of early childhood in Cambodia is under family’s care, that is, mother is the teacher, house is the school and the surrounding environment is the playground. Thus, if we talk about early childhood development to make them become agood child, good youth and good citizen, we cannot ignore the important role of every mother. To this end, I am really proud that I have a caring wife who take care of children and made them study hard to become educated citizen. This is a good example in Khmer society. However, due to socio-economic development, more women have participated in the job market. As a result, the relation between children and their mothers become loosened that must be addressed to ensure children can receive care and education appropriate for the progress of biological development of children. This is a key issue requiring the Royal Government of Cambodia to introduce the National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 in order to step up attention on early childhood care and development and participation from all stakeholders. Through the launch of both documents, we strongly hope that we can further enhance child welfare, child nutrition and education, promote love and care for children from all walks of live, in both family and community, which would help Cambodia avoid a situation of child exploitation and abuse, and child inaccessibility to education and social care, to enhance the values and dignity of Cambodian children. At this moment, I would like to appeal to government officials responsible for activities related to children, local authorities at all levels, provinces, cities, districts, and communes to step up attention to child sector with conscience and real love for children as the same humanity and worthy successors of the society.
In order to ensure active and effective implementation of National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018, I would like the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development and concerned ministries-institutions to focus on some priority tasks, as follows:
First, we must pay constant attention to early childhood development, especially for the disadvantaged, vulnerable and minority ethnic children, and most importantly on children with disabilities, through continued strengthening and extending existing care mechanisms, nutrition, healthcare and education, as well as the prevention of the worst forms of child labor in order to allow them to live safely without encountering any trafficking or abuse.
Second, we must think about quality and sustainability in the promotion of early childhood care and development service. In this regard, setting targets and indicators have to reflect both qualitative and quantitative aspects. At the same time, we must ensure the linkage between kindergarten education and healthcare program to ensure comprehensive early childhood development while expanding parental education programs concerning to nutrition and hygiene service as well as healthcare service. Moreover, the quality of the dissemination of childcare information, including their progress, parenting skills, nutrition, healthcare and education service must be strengthened.
Third, we must enhance the cooperation framework between the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development with relevant ministries-institutions and development partners to complement each other which is the best way to achieve common success. I am strongly confident that through the National Committee of Early Childhood Care, ministries-institutions, stakeholders at all levels, national, capital, provincial, and local levels, and development partners will come up with cooperation mechanism to achieve fruitful outcome for the interest of our nation.
Fourth, we must establish monitoring, controlling and evaluation programs as well as reporting mechanism for to ensure effective implementation of the National Policy and National Action Plan and to continue improving policies and other programs so as to ensure more effective implementation of this work.
I strongly believe that the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development, ministries-institutions, relevant authorities and development partners will continue your active roles and be ready to tackle any challenge for the benefit of Cambodian children and dignity of the society.
Once again, I would like to highly value the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport as the leading and coordinating ministry, relevant ministries-institutions, inter-ministerial committees and all level authorities as well as the development partners and all citizens for the concerted effort and close collaboration in fulfilling respective responsibilities and contributing to early childhood care and development in Cambodia. Furthermore, I do hope and believe that we will step up our collaboration and continue to undertake respective duties with great sense of responsibility to develop institutions and resources and provide opportunities for Cambodia children to grow in better society.
Finally, along with the launch of the “National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018”, I wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, representative of national and international organizations and all the participants with four gems of Buddhist Blessing:Longevity, Nobility, Healthiness and Strength.
Ladies,
Gentlemen, and Distinguished National and International Guests,
Dear All Participants,
Today, my wife and I are honored and pleased to participate in the launching ceremony of the National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and development 2014-2018. At the outset, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all the participants in this event.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to highly commend the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport for its coordination role and cooperation with relevant ministries-institutions and development partners to formulate the comprehensive National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 that responds to the current situation. I would also like to highly commend the leadership and all levels of officials of relevant ministries-institutions, municipal and provincial offices of all line ministries, local authorities and development partners for the cooperation and concerted effort to promote early childhood care and development in the Kingdom of Cambodia. These are valuable contribution to the Royal Government’s effort to bring about socio-economic development.
In fact, attention on early childhood care and development is not just for now, but since the liberation day on January 7, 1979 that reclaim support, protection, care and rights for children. Childcare has been stipulated in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Law on Education and Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, childhood development has been clearly laid out in the fourth rectangle of the Rectangular Strategy – Phase III, which focuses on the promotion of child welfare and their rights to life, development, protection and participation. Moreover, we also support the establishment of SOS Children’s Villages, Sunrise Children’s Villages and Other Children’s Centers across the country. Recently, we have launched the National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition 2014-2018, reflecting our continuous attention on childhood development in Cambodia.
In fact, the Royal Government has been active in enhancing child nutrition, promoting breastfeeding, supplement of vitamin A for children aged 6 to 59 months and healthcare that leads to the reduction of the maternal and infant mortality rates as well as expanding all forms of early childhood education. In addition, the Royal Government has paid attention to infant and child care by focusing on disease prevention and reduction program for infants and children, diarrhea, respiratory infection, iron deficiency, iodine deficiency, vitamin c deficiency, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS etc. As a result, healthcare for children has been gradually improved, e.g. polio was eradicated in 1998. In addition, the Royal Government has taken concrete measures by developing national five-year rolling plans to fight the trafficking of women and children, support the implementation of related laws and international conventions/treaties and strengthen cooperation with other countries to effectively prevent child trafficking and abuse. The Royal Government is determined to take any measure to prevent all forms of child abuse and exploitation such as illegal child labor, child prostitution and trafficking, child participation in armed conflict and other mistreatments.
Today, we are launching the National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 to continue improving child welfare and respond to latest development of child sector in Cambodia, the region and the world. This demonstrates our intensified commitment to the long-term vision of the Royal Government of Cambodia, which is to build a society filled with peace, political stability, security, order, sustainable and equitable development, promotion of culture and national identity, firm adherence to the principle of multi-party democracy and respect for human rights and dignity, well-connected and educated social actors that have good living standard and live in harmony, at both social and family levels, and good reputation on global stage with equal rights and equal footing as other countries. The new national policy and action plan is another pride of the Royal Government, reflecting its full support and cooperation aimed to enhance child welfare and ensure basic rights of children, including right to life, right to protection, right to development and right to participation.
My wife and I will continue our commitment to children with compassion and love as before. At the same time, I fully support every activity in the Kingdom of Cambodia aimed to address the urgent needs of the children, including the provision of care, protection and education service, promotion of physical and mental development of children, elimination of child trafficking and violence against children, and the promotion of the rights and dignity of the children.
Rapid development in the last decade has brought about a significant change, including the livelihood as well as lifestyle. This creates new needs for children that we must pay attention to in order to expose them to new ways of thinking and transform them into educated, skilled and competent work force as well as highly potential and dynamic youth to succeed our socio-economic development effort to realize our ambition to become an upper middle income country in 2030 and a developed country in 2050.
In short, during early childhood, which starts from birth to below the age of 6, parents or guardians must provide care, nutritional food, healthcare and behavioral education. This is an important step toward the promotion of physical development, health, morality, culture as well as mental development and thinking capability of children. Meanwhile, the majority of early childhood in Cambodia is under family’s care, that is, mother is the teacher, house is the school and the surrounding environment is the playground. Thus, if we talk about early childhood development to make them become agood child, good youth and good citizen, we cannot ignore the important role of every mother. To this end, I am really proud that I have a caring wife who take care of children and made them study hard to become educated citizen. This is a good example in Khmer society. However, due to socio-economic development, more women have participated in the job market. As a result, the relation between children and their mothers become loosened that must be addressed to ensure children can receive care and education appropriate for the progress of biological development of children. This is a key issue requiring the Royal Government of Cambodia to introduce the National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018 in order to step up attention on early childhood care and development and participation from all stakeholders. Through the launch of both documents, we strongly hope that we can further enhance child welfare, child nutrition and education, promote love and care for children from all walks of live, in both family and community, which would help Cambodia avoid a situation of child exploitation and abuse, and child inaccessibility to education and social care, to enhance the values and dignity of Cambodian children. At this moment, I would like to appeal to government officials responsible for activities related to children, local authorities at all levels, provinces, cities, districts, and communes to step up attention to child sector with conscience and real love for children as the same humanity and worthy successors of the society.
In order to ensure active and effective implementation of National Policy and Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018, I would like the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development and concerned ministries-institutions to focus on some priority tasks, as follows:
First, we must pay constant attention to early childhood development, especially for the disadvantaged, vulnerable and minority ethnic children, and most importantly on children with disabilities, through continued strengthening and extending existing care mechanisms, nutrition, healthcare and education, as well as the prevention of the worst forms of child labor in order to allow them to live safely without encountering any trafficking or abuse.
Second, we must think about quality and sustainability in the promotion of early childhood care and development service. In this regard, setting targets and indicators have to reflect both qualitative and quantitative aspects. At the same time, we must ensure the linkage between kindergarten education and healthcare program to ensure comprehensive early childhood development while expanding parental education programs concerning to nutrition and hygiene service as well as healthcare service. Moreover, the quality of the dissemination of childcare information, including their progress, parenting skills, nutrition, healthcare and education service must be strengthened.
Third, we must enhance the cooperation framework between the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development with relevant ministries-institutions and development partners to complement each other which is the best way to achieve common success. I am strongly confident that through the National Committee of Early Childhood Care, ministries-institutions, stakeholders at all levels, national, capital, provincial, and local levels, and development partners will come up with cooperation mechanism to achieve fruitful outcome for the interest of our nation.
Fourth, we must establish monitoring, controlling and evaluation programs as well as reporting mechanism for to ensure effective implementation of the National Policy and National Action Plan and to continue improving policies and other programs so as to ensure more effective implementation of this work.
I strongly believe that the National Committee of Early Childhood Care and Development, ministries-institutions, relevant authorities and development partners will continue your active roles and be ready to tackle any challenge for the benefit of Cambodian children and dignity of the society.
Once again, I would like to highly value the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport as the leading and coordinating ministry, relevant ministries-institutions, inter-ministerial committees and all level authorities as well as the development partners and all citizens for the concerted effort and close collaboration in fulfilling respective responsibilities and contributing to early childhood care and development in Cambodia. Furthermore, I do hope and believe that we will step up our collaboration and continue to undertake respective duties with great sense of responsibility to develop institutions and resources and provide opportunities for Cambodia children to grow in better society.
Finally, along with the launch of the “National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development and the National Action Plan on Early Childhood Care and Development 2014-2018”, I wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, representative of national and international organizations and all the participants with four gems of Buddhist Blessing:Longevity, Nobility, Healthiness and Strength.
