2025 Impact Stories – From Fragmented Services to a National System: Strengthened Early Childhood Care in the Philippines

This impact case shows the major step that the Philippines has taken toward improving outcomes for young children with the enactment of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) System Act (Republic Act 12199) in May 2025. This reform addresses longstanding fragmentation in early childhood services—previously spread across health, nutrition, education, protection, and disability sectors—by establishing a single, integrated national ECCD system with strong equity safeguards. Covering approximately 8.9 million children under the age of five, the law places responsibility for implementation and accountability at the level of Local Government Units, embedding early childhood outcomes into local governance frameworks. The policy change is the result of over a decade of sustained, coalition based advocacy led by Save the Children and partners, underpinned by practice based evidence, systems thinking, and inclusive consultation with caregivers and organisations of persons with disabilities. The reform prioritises children with disabilities, those affected by emergencies, and families living in poverty, strengthening the equity and coherence of early childhood service delivery nationwide. This experience demonstrates how long term technical engagement, alignment with existing legislation, and locally led systems approaches can enable complex national systems reform and offers transferable lessons for early childhood policy change in other contexts.