A picture of a conference room full of adults wearing suits and lanyards, rows of name placards, simultaneous translation headsets, and not a single child in the frame has been quietly circulating among early childhood education circles. It comes from no specific summit. Almost any of them could be the source. That ordinary, unremarkable image is exactly what gives the events in Poznan this July a sense of importance.
For an organization that has spent more than 70 years defending children’s rights from birth to age eight, the fact that OMEP 2026 is the first global conference to require children’s direct participation is significant. Insiders are characterizing the 78th World Assembly and International Conference of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, which is set for July 14–18 in Poznan, Poland, as a structural shift rather than just a symbolic one.
Founded in 1948, OMEP operates in 67 countries and has consultative status with UNESCO and the United Nations. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was drafted with its assistance. It has organized conferences that actually influenced early childhood policy, published research, trained teachers across continents, and fought for children in legislative chambers. Despite all of that history, the kids themselves were mostly discussed rather than interacted with. Poznan is an attempt to alter that architecture, at least in theory.
A portion of this impulse may have its roots in the events that occurred in Bangkok two years ago. There was a noticeable change in tone at the 76th World Assembly in Thailand in July 2024—it became more urgent and less triumphalist. There, experts freely discussed what Mathias Urban, Director of Dublin City University’s Early Childhood Research Centre, referred to as the “compounding crises” that young children face: the collapse of the climate, forced relocation, the erosion of democratic norms, and the grinding structural injustices that make poverty self-perpetuating. These dangers are not hypothetical. Children are the first and hardest to hit.
The information presented in Bangkok was depressing. In nations where data were available, it was discovered that about 30% of children were not developing normally. In fact, pre-primary enrollment rates decreased between 2020 and 2023. Just 57% of jobs in low-income nations have trained teachers. One might wonder if a child’s voice in the room would make a difference if the adults at these summits are having difficulty changing the numbers. However, that question might be completely missing the mark.
The perception that the participation deficit is a practical problem rather than merely a moral one is gradually spreading throughout the ECCE community. Adult presumptions about children’s needs, which frequently deviate from what children actually experience, are often reflected in policies created completely without the involvement of children. A glimpse of this gap was provided by the peace education symposium in Bangkok, where children from Nagasaki folded origami cranes and migrant children in Cyprus created paintings that conveyed a vision of rights and peace that no policy paper had fully captured. It was tiny. It was striking.
In reality, it is difficult to make participation at OMEP 2026 mandatory. Without careful facilitation, ethical protections, and age-appropriate structures, children cannot be given a microphone in a formal intergovernmental conference and expected to participate meaningfully. The specifics of Poznan’s mandatory participation framework’s implementation and post-implementation evaluation are still unknown. However, the choice to mandate it instead of just promote it indicates that the organization is no longer considering this to be optional goodwill.
It remains to be seen if policymakers and governments pay attention. The political will of states that are frequently preoccupied with other matters is necessary to translate conference resolutions into actual resource allocation, legal reform, and classroom reality. OMEP can influence the conversation, advocate loudly, and document everything. Strong promises were made in the Tashkent Declaration. At best, the follow-through has been inconsistent.
Even so, there is something subtly noteworthy about a global organization stating that the people who will be most impacted by these decisions will now be present when they are discussed. It’s not a revolution. However, it is also not insignificant.
