Today, February 27, 2013, early childhood development partners from across the Region join their counterparts in Barbados for the 13th Annual Meeting of the Early Childhood Development Working Group (ECDWG), hosted by Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). At the meeting, the ECDWG is focussing on key aspects of its revised mandate (2007), including providing strategic direction to the CARICOM Secretariat; networking and exchanging of information on programming across the region; and coordinating Regional activities to facilitate capacity building, such as the promulgation of the Regional Early Childhood Development Minimum Service Standards. The ECDWG was established in 2002 by the CARICOM Secretariat to operationalise the Regional Action Plan on Early Childhood Development which was approved by Heads of Government of CARICOM in 1997. CDB is one of the original members of the ECDWG. ABOVE: Dr. Martin Baptiste, Operations Officer (Education), CDB and Ms. Cynthia Hobbs, Senior Education Specialist (Jamaica), IDB. HOME PAGE IMAGE (L-R): Participants Ms. Shelly-Ann Harper, UNICEF Barbados and EC; Ms. Denise Robateau, UNICEF Belize and Ms. Patricia McPherson, Deputy Programme Manager-Education, CARICOM Secretariat.