ECCE Rwanda Outcomes Fund

Intervention

Social or environmental challenge

This programme aims to create incentives to grantees to develop adequate and sustainable support strategies for the inclusion of children with developmental delays or disabilities (including improving access and developing caregivers’ and parents’ capacities), a challenge identified as the primary issue in the ECCE in Rwanda

Description of the intervention

The programme aims to improve the quality of existing community-based ECDs in rural areas, serving as a crucial stopgap to bridge the gap in ECE provision for underserved and poorer communitie while new pre-primary schools are being constructed. Being mindful of limited budgets, the programme adopts a cost effective approach that can be later scaled to other settings and adopted by the government, ensuring a far-reaching impact. Additionally, using existing community structures allows for early learning opportunities for those not easily served by pre-primary classrooms attached to a primary school.

The OBF mechanism will ensure that government and donor money is spent on what works and will encourage results-driven innovation. By focusing on outcomes, OBF programmes are a value-for-money option that ensures every dollar spent to improve children's holistic skills is maximised.

Target population

The direct participants of this programme are children in the 3-5 years levels, with an additional focus on children with developmental delays, who attend informal community-based ECD centers in rural areas, where access to existing pre-primary classrooms is most challenging.

Outcome metrics

• Settings and practices meeting quality standards - Improved structural quality: Compliance with minimum standards (including age-appropriate learning materials, safe and protected facilities, and appropriate caregiver-child ratios) is a necessary condition for grantees to operate ECD centers.
• Settings and practices meeting quality standards - Improved process quality: Improving the knowledge and relevance given by caregivers to establishing child-centered age-appropriate practices can lead to improved learning. For instance, fostering opportunities for play time during the preschool years has been shown to boost school readiness skills.
• Improved holistic child development outcomes: This is the ultimate outcome targeted by the intervention and as such, the programme incentivises this element directly. It measures aspects as early learning and school readiness.

Last data update

Data for this pipeline project/programme was last updated in August 2024