Philanthropic organisations, ELMA Philanthropies and the DG Murray Trust co-founded Ilifa Labantwana (“children’s inheritance” in Nguni) in 2007 to support the implementation of South Africa’s National Integrated Plan for ECD (2005-2010).

Under the Sobambisana Initiative (2008-2011), Ilifa commissioned various NGOs to pilot a range of community-based ECD delivery modalities (reflecting numerous components of the Essential Package) that responded to the different contexts in which SA’s children live. Modalities tested included home-visiting, playgroups, parent education, and centre- and school-based enrichment. 

Sobambisana was designed with a system view in mind, examining the interconnectedness and relationships within the ECD sector. The initiative documented and built on existing knowledge, meeting the need for a locally relevant evidence base for policymakers and programmers.

The challenge

At the time, South Africa’s ECD ecosystem suffered from a narrow definition of what constitutes ECD (i.e. creche/preschool) and lacked a holistic approach to age and context–specific provision. The government had improved access to Grade R, however the service delivery modalities for children aged 0-5 were less clear. 

Key lessons from the Sobambisana Initiative

Through Sobambisana, we learned that there is no ‘one size fits all’ way to achieve population coverage for ECD. SA needed a range of age- and context-specific, and adaptable, approaches that could support children and caregivers’ needs from pregnancy until formal school-going age.

Sobambisana helped us define the guiding principles for our work; these principles would eventually go on to frame national policy design.

• ECD service provision needs to include pregnancy.
• ECD, rather than being synonymous with ‘group early learning’, is an integrated package of essential services: maternal and child healthcare, nutritional support, social services, support to primary caregivers, and stimulation for early learning.
• Apart from maternal and child health and income support, ECD service provision is fundamentally embedded in communities, therefore support for ECD must fit the various community contexts that exist in SA. Sobambisana demonstrated that expanding community-based provision and improving the quality of centre-based programming are equally important routes to expanding quality coverage.
• Quality, access and equity are all critical to achieving universal access to ECD.
• SA needs fit-for-purpose institutional arrangements to drive access to the essential package similar to those in other successful countries implementing branded national ECD programmes (e.g. Bolsa Familia in Brazil, Chile Crece Contigo, Oportunidades in Mexico). Achieving a ‘quantum leap’ in access to quality ECD would demand intervention not just at the level of ECD programmes, but at the level of the system.

Timeline of activities

Related resources