Meaghon Reid

🗣️ A recent landscape report, commissioned by Grand Challenges Canada and the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), provides a critical and comprehensive analysis of the global ECD sector, highlighting progress, current challenges, and pathways forward.    The report underscores major challenges facing children globally due to a “polycrisis” – a perilous mix of climate change, economic instability, health emergencies, and conflicts. This crisis diverts focus and resources from early childhood, resulting in dire consequences. Over 100 million more children now live in poverty, and early education has been severely disrupted for 180 million children globally. Additionally, systemic barriers hinder effective policy and investment, worsening vulnerabilities.   In South Africa, the global “polycrisis” profoundly impacts our youngest citizens, threatening the country’s future human capital. In our context, this translates into stark realities:  ✅ Soaring child poverty: nearly 5 million children under six in South Africa live in households unable to meet basic needs, with food poverty rates increasing significantly since 2019.  ✅ Persistent health and learning gaps: Over 1.5 million young children suffer from stunting, and severe acute malnutrition cases are on the rise. Less than half of children in early learning programmes are “on track” developmentally.  ✅ Systemic underfunding & fragmentation: The delivery of essential ECD services is severely underfunded, often fragmented, and lacks effective coordination.    Ilifa’s strategic approach directly addresses the report’s urgent call for:  ✅ System transformation and sustainable funding: Transforming existing systems to achieve lasting system-wide change, including developing sustainable funding models that prioritise the youngest children & embrace a multi-sectoral view. ✅ A multi-sectoral, life-course “whole child” approach: Viewing children holistically as they develop across the life-course, rather than being compartmentalised. Locally, efforts are towards strengthening coordination between government departments to promote an integrated approach across various ECD services, recognising that children’s long-term development relies on integrated maternal & child health, nutrition, social protection, caregiver support, and quality early learning from conception to age six.   ✅ Leveraging data and evidence for scale and quality: Leveraging new technologies to improve ECD at scale and ensure quality implementation across all programmes. Improved data tools such as the ECD Census, the #SouthAfricanEarlyChildhoodReview, & the #ThrivebyFiveIndex provide invaluable data and evidence to inform policy and drive reforms, ensuring interventions are adaptable and effective at scale.    An integrated and sustained response is needed to mitigate these converging crises and reverse the global effect on child poverty and educational disruption, ensuring every child has the foundation to thrive.      

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