Gordhan delivers the MTBPS to Parliament on 26 October
This Wednesday, Minister Pravin Gordhan presented South Africa’s annual mini budget – or the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, as it goes by formally. The MTBPS is crucially important for the country, and for the ECD sector, as it gives an indication of what government is prioritising for spending in the next 3 years (the medium term).
As we all know, the economic outlook for the medium term is not great. The Minister noted that in addition to a difficult economic environment, we have experienced further setbacks because of extraordinary challenges. Employment has declined over the past year, businesses are struggling, and households are struggling to make ends meet. Within this context, he observed the growing demand from different sectors and stakeholders, for increased resources and support to realise their goals and objectives.
So, looking at the MTBPS, is ECD one of the choices, and has it, as required by putting national interests first, merited sizeable investments to support implementation of the National Integrated ECD policy?
First off, it is important to note that the medium resource base is smaller than February’s projection. The country has R 23 billion less to spend this financial year on policy implementation that estimated at the beginning of the year.
The Minister noted that the MTBPS “tells a story of an economy in difficulties but not in decline, of a society that is intolerably unequal but is making progress in addressing its legacy of fragmented communities and discriminatory practices, of a government committed to promoting inclusive growth within a sustainable fiscal framework.” The spotlight has fallen on inclusive growth and development as the bridge out of troubled waters. Inclusive growth, the Minister emphasised, depends on equalising social and economic opportunities.
As the ECD sector well-knows, equalising opportunities for the marginalised depends on equalising development in the earliest years. As such, ECD is the bedrock of national development. This is acknowledged by the Minister in his prioritisation of several services core to inclusive development – quality education and social protection services. Within this context, the Minister notes that in “the present phase of our development, financing of education has to be our highest priority.” Notably, he stressed that investments must improve quality across the entire education system. However, not surprisingly, the focus of the speech was on funding tertiary education, with no specific mention of the key investments required in early childhood learning to drive the national educational quality imperative. The failure once again to mention the need to prioritise investments at this level, with policy implementation pending, is cause for concern. It is not clear where, on a policy level, ECD is seen or prioritised.
Despite these reservations, several social programmes which have merited attention, are set to improve ECD outcomes, bearing in mind that ECD is so much more than early childhood education. For example:
- An extended child support grant for orphans will be introduced
- The NHI conditional grant will be increased to continue expanding access to general practitioners in the historically under-serviced pilot districts, as well as bring professional capacity into the School Health Programme
- Major infrastructure investments over the next three years include massive improvements in primary health care facilities in all NHI pilot districts, as well as water and sanitation improvements
- Stronger financial controls in provincial and local government planning and expenditure. A notable innovation is the development of a local government budget data portal called “Municipal Money”. It will provide open access to comparable and verified information on the financial performance of all municipalities. This opening window offers a unique opportunity for the ECD sector to scrutinize and hold local governments to account for spending for the benefit of young children through their use of funds such as the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, a portion of which is meant to be dedicated to ECD.
Finally, the Minister noted that maintaining the focus on our national priorities and ensuring inclusive development through equalised opportunities cannot be accomplished if government acts alone. He emphasised the need for robust public – private partnerships to mobilise resources to drive delivery of our national priority programmes – of which ECD is undeniable one. The need for driving partnerships to ensure that priorities remain on track is perhaps even more true for the ECD, than other sectors. The sector should take concerted action to build these partnerships and mobilise resources around our shared ECD priorities as articulated in the ECD policy. The policy makes provision for establishing an institutional vehicle for driving the required partnerships and coherence of resource mobilisation and investments. The policy states that the Inter-Ministerial Committee for ECD will develop a national integrated ECD funding framework. The framework, once developed, will regulate, coordinate and support the mobilisation and coordination of funds towards the attainment of ECD priorities. Given the constrained fiscal outlook, the ECD imperative in the context of sustained inclusive growth, and the need for strong and coherent resourcing partnerships, it is critical that the development of the framework be prioritised in 2017. It is perhaps one of the most important measures to keep the implementation of the ECD policy on track in these trying economic times.
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.
