CATALYZE Launches Together for Early Childhood Evidence Activity in Five African Countries
Enhancing access to low-cost and high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is a crucial step towards fostering evelopment. Ensuring the distribution of development benefits and equal access to ECCE for underserved populations can improve child outcomes, promote women’s economic empowerment, enhance family welfare, and drive overall economic growth. Yet, less than half of children living in low- and middle-income countries are enrolled in pre-primary education. Pre-primary education systems — the fastest growing area within ECCE — are still developing in many countries, and the quality and coherence of the services are fragmented. Evidence-based data about program quality and child outcomes is essential to ensuring the provision of high-quality services, improving policies and programs, as well as tracking progress toward achieving universal access to pre-primary education.
While there are many tools for measuring child development, early learning, and the quality of early education environments, less is known about how the gathered data can be used to improve pre-primary systems over time.
The CATALYZE ECCE Together for Early Childhood Evidence (CATALYZE T4ECE) Activity is designed to build the capacity of host country governments, USAID Africa Missions, and local country partners to improve ECE-based evidence building and decision making. CATALYZE T4ECE builds on work initiated in 2018, which fostered collaboration among government, academia, and civil society stakeholders across four African countries to identify ECCE data and measurement needs. The Activity operationalizes the learning and recommendations from this previous work and adds a fifth country, Malawi, to the portfolio. Full implementation of all CATLAYZE T4ECE activities began in January and February 2024, and are summarized below.
Ethiopia — ECED Knowledge Hub Strengthening and Capacity Building in Early Childhood Education and Development
CATALYZE T4ECE will support a team led by the School Readiness Initiative, in partnership with Addis Ababa University and Educational Assessment and Examinations Service (EAES), to continue the work in expanding Ethiopia’s early childhood development and education (ECED) Knowledge Hub. CATALYZE T4ECE will scale up the existing Knowledge Hub to broaden its reach to organizations and resources available nationwide. The Activity will further build capacity and knowledge exchange efforts by synthesizing resources and policy briefs, enhancing the knowledge hub interface, and conducting workshops to strengthen knowledge and understanding of early childhood data and measurement of the government and other key stakeholders in Ethiopia.
Liberia — Piloting National Measure of Children’s Learning and Development
CATALYZE T4ECE Liberia, led by the University of Liberia, will pilot the adapted International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool, ensuring its relevancy and feasibility in the Liberian context. This feasibility trial will serve as a foundational step for the Ministry of Education’s plans to develop a national early childhood assessment tool for Liberia. These efforts align with the Ministry’s goal to create a nationally integrated early childhood development (ECD) data collection and management system, encompassing data on both ECE quality and learning outcomes.
Malawi — Strengthening the Early Childhood Development Management System
Under the leadership of University of Malawi, CATALYZE T4ECE Malawi will conduct a background study to strengthen Malawi’s Early Childhood Development Management Information System (ECDMIS). ECDMIS is currently under development and being used in select districts. CATALYZE T4ECE Malawi will conduct desk review and consultations, identify gaps in existing data, and make recommendations to strengthen the system. Strengthening ECDMIS will advance the government’s goal of data-driven policy planning and implementation, decision making, and monitoring and evaluating of ECD in Malawi.
Rwanda — Building a national early childhood measurement system
CATALYZE T4ECE Rwanda, led by Save the Children Rwanda, will support a nationally representative assessment with International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) to pilot key performance benchmarks. The study will determine the emergent numeracy, literacy, socio-emotional, and motor skills for children completing preschool; as well as determine which factors of classroom quality are correlated with children’s school readiness. The Activity will also build the capacity of government officials from the Ministry of Education, Rwanda Education Board, and National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA), who will use IDELA as a national early childhood measurement tool. Capacity building will support government officials in linking IDELA to existing government data systems and processes. These activities will ultimately help the government realize its vision to institutionalize ECE data collection to improve early childhood outcomes.
South Africa — Monitoring what Matters
CATALYZE T4ECE South Africa, led by Ilifa Labantwana, will identify a key set of indicators to be included in a new ECD M&E Framework for the country’s National ECD Policy. Within this framework, various government departments will report collectively on the progress of ECD service delivery and ultimately, improved child outcomes. The development of this new ECD M&E framework is a key step towards consolidating existing data sources and systems that directly tie into the government’s population-based planning process. This growing suite and shared infosystem of ECD data and information products will help South Africa realize its goal of building a robust ECD information ecosystem.
About CATALYZE ECCE Family of Investments
USAID CATALYZE (2019–2027), implemented by Palladium, is a $250 million contract designed to mobilize $2 billion in private capital towards underserved sectors, geographies, and populations. The CATALYZE Education portfolio demonstrates commitments by USAID and Palladium to test creative blended finance solutions across different education sectors, models of intervention, and country contexts, including a dedicated focus on early childhood care and education. The CATALYZE ECCE Family of Investments (CATALYZE ECCE) is a portfolio of ECCE interventions implemented across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia designed to advance a triple dividend of 1) improved early childhood development and learning outcomes, 2) increased women’s economic empowerment, 3) and job creation. CATALYZE T4ECE is one Activity under the CATALYZE ECCE portfolio.
