2016 has been a good year for early childhood development in South Africa.
- The National Integrated ECD Policy was adopted
- Many more ECD centres, which had previously battled to register and improve access to quality services, were able to register and access the ECD subsidy, thanks to a more robust system of conditional registration
- Partly because of this registration drive, the number of children benefiting from the ECD subsidy increased by almost 100 000.
- The qualifications framework for ECD practitioners has been strengthened to better align with the ECD policy vision of an expanded cadre of qualified workers able to deliver a comprehensive programme of early childhood development
- Significantly more money has been allocated from the public purse to fund ECD expansion. Notably, government made available an R 810 million conditional grant for ECD infrastructure expansion
- The Department of Health, which has for many years not aligned itself to the national ECD agenda, has acknowledged its key role in delivering ECD services to children under two years, and has engaged in focussed drives to promote breastfeeding and revise the Road to Health Booklet which will form the locus of the department’s development services
- A closer and stronger working relationship between the sectors responsible for the ECD package gained impetus with the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial committee on ECD and the supporting ECD forum
- The first South African Early Childhood Review was published in partnership between the Presidency, The Children’s Institute and Ilifa Labantwana, giving a clear picture of how far we have come and how far we have to go to provide a suite of essential ECD services.
Despite the good progress, the ECD review and other research publications of 2016 showed that there is still substantial work to be done, not just in the delivery of ECD services, but in the building of systems to drive and sustain population based planning and delivery.
Notable challenges include:
- The high levels of stunting and generally poor nutritional status of young children in South Africa
- The continued focus – in planning and resourcing – on ECD centres rather than programmes from birth
- The continued focus in the health system on surviving rather than children thriving, as required by the Sustainable Development Goals
- The lack of effective quality ECD services for children with disabilities and / or developmental delays
- The lack of systems and data to plan for and track progress in delivery of absolutely essential services such as parenting support programmes.
These challenges represent only a sample of those that must be overcome if we are to realise the ECD policy vision. As 2016 comes to an end, we must ask: What should we prioritise in 2017 to see the systemic shifts in our development landscape that ECD has the potential to make? And how do we guarantee that the country turns its collective and focussed attention to addressing these priorities?
Well, the ECD policy itself clearly identifies the short-term priorities. The policy requires, that by 2017, the following foundations be put in place (most of which need substantial work to get to the required policy position):
- A national multi-sectoral comprehensive food and nutrition strategy for children under 5 must be developed
- National multi-sectoral guidelines to ensure universal availability of quality inclusive ECD services must be developed
- Provincial departments of social development must, in collaboration with local municipalities, establish management structures to manage, oversee and coordinate delivery of ECD services
- The community health worker programme must be expanded and community health workers must be trained on development and provide an expanded suite of support in homes and communities
- A national non-centre based ECD facilitator programme must be developed and rolled out
- The financing mechanism for the delivery of the ECD package must be in place
- A national monitoring system must be developed and overseen by the Inter-Departmental Committee on ECD to measure progress in advancing the delivery of the promised comprehensive ECD package.
Our collective attention must turn to these deliverables as soon as the year starts, given that each represents a massive undertaking that will take significant resources and collaboration of stakeholders to yield the desired outcomes.
How do we ensure that collective attention and resources turn to these priorities?
We must ensure that they are truly embedded within the national framework of priorities – governed by the Outcomes Framework.
The Outcomes Framework is a statement of our 14 national priorities aligned to the National Development Plan and the Medium Term Strategic Framework. The Presidency is the custodian of the Framework and all ministers and departments at all levels of government must develop their annual plans and budgets to advance these priorities. All government ministries and departments are required to plan for, deliver and report against progress in the fourteen priority areas. Their contractual obligations are managed and enforced through outcome delivery agreements signed by ministers and provincial premiers.
The successful national and government-wide prioritisation of an issue or set of issues depends on how well they are embedded within the Outcomes Framework. Their visibility in the Outcomes Framework is a true test of their national importance. And, at this stage, ECD is just not visible enough.
2017 should start off with a review and revision of the national Outcomes Framework and accompanying indicators and delivery agreements across the 14 priority outcomes areas to better profile ECD and the specific ECD policy priorities as non-negotiables for action across the ministerial and departmental spectrum. The delivery agreements with ministers and premiers should be revised accordingly, as should the current set of indicators to better reflect progress in our ECD priorities as articulated in the policy, and to enable the country to monitor progress at all levels of government.
The Policy Post is written by Patricia Martin, the director of Advocacy Aid, a consultancy that provides advocacy support to the development sector. Patricia has worked as a child rights advocate and policy analyst for more than a decade and has a special interest in ECD policy and programme development and monitoring.
