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EXPANDING ACCESS TO ECCD THROUGH DIVERSE DELIVERY SYSTEMS

EXPANDING ACCESS TO ECCD THROUGH DIVERSE DELIVERY SYSTEMS. Presented at the Workshop on Advancing Quality Early Childhood Development for All: Strategies for going to scale. Zanzibar, Tanzania, October 26 – 28, 2009. By Lynette Okeng'o, PhD. Presentation Outline. Introduction

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EXPANDING ACCESS TO ECCD THROUGH DIVERSE DELIVERY SYSTEMS

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  1. EXPANDING ACCESS TO ECCD THROUGH DIVERSE DELIVERY SYSTEMS Presented at the Workshop on Advancing Quality Early Childhood Development for All: Strategies for going to scale. Zanzibar, Tanzania, October 26 – 28, 2009 By Lynette Okeng'o, PhD

  2. Presentation Outline • Introduction • Delivery systems for improving access • Challenges and opportunities • Suggestions for strengthening programs

  3. Expanding access Increasing opportunities/avenues through which children experience and benefit from services • Increased access to services that are: • Good quality with positive impact • Well institutionalized • Sustainable • Well executed expansion strategies lead to provision of high quality, holistic, inclusive and comprehensive ECCD services

  4. Current Situation Data source: Global Education Digest, 2008 for all except Mali and Zambia (country reports)

  5. Who are the excluded? • Children aged 0-3 years • Children living in poverty • Orphans and vulnerable children • Children living in rural areas • Children from nomadic communities • Children with special needs Expanding access requires extra effort in reaching these children

  6. Delivery systems • Centre - based programs • Community based programs • Parent empowerment programs • Health and/or nutrition programs • Home based programs Categories not mutually exclusive

  7. Centre based programs Provide a good opportunity to group large numbers of children and usually benefit from some kind of organization. Opportunities • Provides an opportunity for formalized, regulated and standardized service delivery • Multiple service providers private entrepreneurs, NGO’s, FBO’s and to a limited extent by government through Ministry of Education • Usually located in or near primary schools Challenges: • Predominantly early education programs • Teaching methods often developmentally inappropriate • Mostly located in urban areas catering for children in the middle to high income groups

  8. Expanding centre based services • Adding a reception year into formal primary school system (South Africa, Zanzibar, Kenya) • Strengthen parent education and involvement • Promotion of ECCD programs for rapid school readiness among hard to reach communities (KSRI) • Strengthening services to include nutrition, health, sanitation and protection for holistic service delivery • Establishing ECCD centers in other institutions including hospitals, work places and Churches/Mosques • Strengthen partnership with private entrepreneurs, NGO’s, FBO’s, CBO’s etc that serve vulnerable communities

  9. Community based programs Initiated by communities to address community felt needs (CBCC’s- Malawi, NCP- Swaziland, MRC-East Africa, ECD centers in Kenya etc) Opportunities • Possibility of reaching a large number of vulnerable children • Availability of diverse community resources • Positive social- cultural practices • Growing interest among various partners to work with communities • Existent health and nutrition services Challenges • Limited funding and government involvement • Limited capacity in management of centers • Caregivers and educators mostly volunteers with limited training • Weak links with national structures

  10. Home - based programs Usually initiated to support working mothers in low income urban areas who need child care services (e.g Korogocho home based day care centers- Kenya) Opportunities • Possibility of reaching children aged 0-3 years • Serve the needs of very vulnerable communities Challenges • Often not registered and uncoordinated • Caregivers not trained • Limited coverage

  11. Strengthening community and home-based programs • Enhance community level management, commitment and control • Strengthen evidence based pilot programs to encourage replication in other communities • Establish sustainability structures through: • Strengthening linkage with national plans and programs eg PRSP, FTI, SWAps, Vision 2020 etc • Diversified funding • Decentralized capacity building programs • Linkage with local government structures that connect to other levels of government • Continuous effort to ensure that programs respond to community felt needs • Establishment of Effective M&E systems

  12. Include early stimulation into existing health, sanitation, nutrition and protection programs to reach the under 3’s • Strengthen the development component of the ACSD strategy • Include early stimulation in the c-IMCI family package • Include care for development counseling sessions in community health programs • Include early stimulation indicators and information on health records

  13. Parent empowerment programs • Parent empowerment programs seek to educate and support parents and caregivers in providing environments that maximize children’s potential — physically, socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually Current situation: • Limited coverage • Centre on health aspects of development • Receive low priority in programming

  14. Why Focus on Parental Capacity? • All children have a right to parental love and care (CRC Article 7, 9, 10) • Parents critical to early development

  15. Strategies for expansion • Parental education programs • Integration of parental education into existing programs (post natal care, adult literacy etc) • Development of parental education manuals for all age groups and literacy levels • Parental education through media (newsletters, TV, radio etc) • Parental support programs • Parent support in the Home: Home visiting • Materials development programs • Strengthening linkage with relevant ministry for establishment of IGA’s • Parental Involvement programs • Provide policy support for the establishment of PTA’s and open days in ECCD centers • Encourage family days in the communities

  16. Expansion of ECCD programs calls for increased comprehensiveness across the life cycle.. • 5-8yrs • School readiness • Transition and adjustment to formal school • Learning of three R’s • Maintaining good health, nutrition • Life skills • Gender socialization • 3-5 yrs • Socialization, psychosocial interaction • Play • Maintaining good health, nutrition • School readiness • Gender socialization Prenatal-3 years Survival, care, and protection of newborn. Nutrition security, immunization and cognitive stimulation.

  17. In summary • Expansion of access requires • Intense advocacy and effective communication strategies • Government financial and political commitment • Implementation of diverse programs based on community felt needs • Effective multi-sectoral co-ordination • Strengthened partnership among various stakeholders • Empowered communities for enhanced sustainability • Strengthened accountability as well as monitoring and evaluation systems

  18. Thank you…

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