Opportunity 4: Implementation Experience
Simple, powerful lessons from Colombia
I recently participated in a meeting of the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally (IYCG), in Addis Ababa. For me, the stand-out presentation was by Constanza Alarcon from the Office of the President in Colombia. She described how the country has focused its efforts on the national priority of early childhood development, and produced […]
aeioTu: an example of an Early Childhood Development social franchise in South America
aeioTu has designed a high-quality and comprehensive Early Childhood Development (ECD) package for 0-5 year old children in Colombia, with the specific aim of increasing ECD service provision to low income families. In this learning brief they offer useful ideas on programme design and the development process. Read the article here.
Tags: ECD, ECD provision, Resourceful Young Children, Social franchising
Posted on 19 February 2015
The DG Murray Trust Early Thinking Project: Developing early thinking with Philosophy for Children
Reflective thinking is important for democracies and society in general, but even more so in seriously polarised societies such as South Africa – where communities are still divided and where violence is common in dealing with social conflict. The ability to think reflectively and critically is a skill that can be cultivated through education and […]
Tags: Early thinking, ECD, Resourceful Young Children
Posted on 2 June 2014
National Association of Child Care Workers: Development of a Service Delivery Model for Community Based Professional Child and Youth Care Services
The care of Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC) is an ongoing challenge in South Africa and the Isibindi “Circle of Courage” child and youth care model has been specifically developed by NACCW as a comprehensive community-based response to this problem. In this two-part learning brief NACCW describes the development and scale-up of the Isibindi […]
Scaling upwards and outwards – “Franchising” early childhood development projects
HIPPY SA needed to devise a scalability strategy that could achieve growth without compromising quality. They then stumbled across the term ‘Social Franchising’ which in their words “means that by systematically codifying the core elements of the programme, and then producing reliable outcomes, it is possible to ‘franchise’ the programme to other organisations and communities […]
Tags: ECD, Social franchising
Posted on 31 May 2013
Improving children’s developmental outcomes through the Community Work Programme
The government’s Community Work Programme (CWP) provides regular, predictable part-time employment in communities where poverty is deep, endemic, and intractable, and where sustainable livelihoods are difficult to maintain. According to the early childhood development programme, ITEC, a percentage of CWP participants also have the inclination and skills to provide essential social services such as caring for […]
Posted on 31 January 2013
How to develop a crèche in a poor and marginalised area
In this learning brief the Ekukhanyeni Relief Project describes the process of registering with the Department of Social Development (DSD) as a Place of Care to allow them to access enabling grants. There seems to be an either/or situation where crèches that cannot meet requirements for DSD registration are overlooked by government and in many […]
Tags: ECD
Posted on 31 January 2013
Thinking about the Early Child: Ububele’s community-based child care workers
There is abundant, high quality international and local research which provides compelling evidence of the long-term benefits of Early Childhood Development (ECD) to individuals, families, communities and societies. Ububele’s ‘Thinking about the Early Child’ programme is designed for people who, with no or limited post-school education, are working with children under seven, their parents and […]
Tags: Child Care Worker Training, ECD
Posted on 10 February 2012
Growth Sparks by Ilifa Labantwana
Ilifa Labantwana is a multi-donor partnership to support integrated early childhood development (ECD). Specifically the project aims to increase access to, and improve the quality of ECD for children in under-served communities; and to support South African policy implementation of integrated ECD interventions in a sustainable manner. Growth Sparks articles are an ECD resource exploring […]
Posted on 11 October 2011
Which Math Materials Improve Teaching and Learning?
Very poor teaching of numeracy and mathematics in South African primary schools is a serious problem. JET Education Services did research to establish whether workbooks were more effective than standard maths textbooks in improving numeracy. They share their findings and the implications of these findings for South Africa here. Read it here… We would greatly […]
Posted on 11 October 2011
