South Africa Early Childhood Development Outcomes Fund

Intervention

Social or environmental challenge

1. Many age-eligible children have no or limited access to ECD services. Currently, over one million children in South Africa between the ages of 3-5 have no or limited access to ECD services. The cause of the perceived access gap differs across geographies; in densely populated urban areas, there are an abundance of age-eligible children in demand of early learning programmes but a limited number of early learning programmes. As such, access gap in such areas stems mostly from shortage in the supply of ELPs. In rural areas where there is abundant land but few age-eligible children, access gap can often be attributed to a lack of demand.

2. Quality of existing early learning programmes is highly variable. There is not yet an established, reliable assessment system for the quality of early learning programmes. Depending on the socio-economic contexts they operate in, ELPs vary in their abilities to access ancillary support, such as resources for practitioner and management training. ELPs also differ in their abilities to conduct systemic performance monitoring and tailor services to meet the diverse demands of children participating in the programme.

3. Child development outcomes in existing early learning programmes are low. The 2022 Thrive by Five Index Report, for instance, showed that only 45% of children enrolled in an ELP in South Africa are on developmentally on track for both physical growth and early learning. 53% of all children are falling short of at least one of the developmental milestones for their age and are deemed at risk. 4% of all children face significant barriers to meeting developmental milestones in both physical growth and early learning and are deemed at high risk.

4. Early learning programmes face barriers to accessing the government subsidy, which is key to ensuring sustainability of the service delivered and outcomes achieved. The 2021 ECD census showed that 60% of centre-based ELPs are not registered. To meet this challenge, DBE is working to streamline the registration framework and process to make it easier and more straightforward for ELPs to register and receive the subsidy.

Description of the intervention

The primary objectives of this programme is to expand access to and improve quality of ELPs in disadvantaged communities to ultimately improve child development outcomes. To achieve these objectives, the programme will contract Resource and Training Organizations (RTOs) to help establish new, high-quality ELPs and support existing ones with training, registration, and additional resources. By doing so, the programme will complement and strengthen DBE's ongoing efforts to build system capacity and expand quality access to ECD services.

Target population

Children aged 0-5 enrolled in low-fee, full-time ELPs

Outcome metrics

• Expanded access Fixed per child payment for new ELPs meeting minimum health and safety standards, up to ELP capacity: During the first year of implementation, payments will be tied to expanded access measured by the total number of children that are attending newly established ELPs. New ELPs must meet minimum health and safety standards to receive payment. Attendance will be paid for up to ELP capacity. Fixed per child payment for existing ELPs meeting minimum health and safety standards, up to ELP capacity: Payment for this metric will be made based on the increase in the number of children attending existing ELPs, within ELP capacity, that meet minimum health and safety standards. To calculate the increase in attendance, baseline assessment will be taken in existing ELPs as soon as implementation begins.
• Improved ELP quality During the subsequent years of implementation, the programme will tie payments to improvement in both structural and process quality in new and existing ELPs. Improvement in quality will be measured using the Quality Assurance and Support System (QASS tool).
• Improved holistic child development outcomes As part of EOF’s mission to focus on outcomes, the programme aims to link a substantial portion of the payments to children’s holistic developmental outcomes.
• Increased registration Registration is crucial to the sustainability of the ELPs as only registered ELPs can access government subsidy. The programme will be agnostic to registration status of ELPs (fully registered, conditionally registered, and unregistered ELPs will all be eligible for the programme).

Last data update

Data for this pipeline instrument was last updated in November 2024.