Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

International and Inter-agency
<strong>ECCD</strong> Initiatives
Effectiveness in <strong>ECCD</strong>
The Bernard van Leer Foundation is spearheading
a three to five year inter-agency, cross-country
study of programming in <strong>ECCD</strong>, titled the
Effectiveness Initiative. Judith L. Evans, (Director
of the <strong>Consultative</strong> <strong>Group</strong>) will be serving as the
Bernard van Leer coordinator of this effort from
The Hague, working closely with Bernard van
Leer Foundation staff members, as well as with
individuals from other partner agencies within the
CG, and key <strong>ECCD</strong> proponents in the field.
The Effectiveness Initiative (EI) is an
in-depth, contextual look at what is working in
early childhood development (<strong>ECCD</strong>) programming.
The centrepiece of the Effectiveness Initiative
involves an in-depth case study of
approximately 10 projects (some funded by the
Bernard van Leer Foundation, some not) that
have a reputation in the field for being effective.
In seeking to understand what makes an approach
effective in a given context, the focus
will be on the processes that go into the creation
and implementation of an effective <strong>ECCD</strong> project,
as judged by its outcomes. Within this initiative
an attempt will be made to identify what
has been tried, what has worked, and what has
not worked in <strong>ECCD</strong> programming. The EI effort
will provide a building block for our understanding
of how effectiveness is achieved. It will
offer opportunities to compare what constitutes
effectiveness in diverse settings, derive common
lessons learned, and distil a process for conducting
in-depth case studies in other settings to further
enhance our understanding of effectiveness.
For the purposes of the Initiative, effectiveness is
defined as follows:
Effectiveness in <strong>ECCD</strong> programming is meeting the developmental
and cultural needs of young children and
their families, in ways that enable them to thrive.
Effectiveness is a judgement, based on an
agreed-upon standard. Effectiveness encompasses
both the processes and outcomes of an activity.
Having said that, it needs to be recognised
that there is no universal standard for judging effectiveness.
The definition will vary according
to the nature/perspective of different people and
groups within a project. Effectiveness is neither
linear, uni-dimensional, nor uni-directional. It is
likely to vary within the same project, and
across projects. Standards for effectiveness are
derived from cultural values, personal experience,
“science”, and particular theoretical positions,
as well as the comparison of similar
experiences.
Operationally, an <strong>ECCD</strong> project is effective
when it:
■ activates people within a context to provide
supports to children, care providers, and
families;
■ recognises, builds on and/or creates dynamic systems
of support in a community/context that
can respond to people’s changing
needs/concerns;
■ supports parenting/care provision for children in
all sectors of community life, so that care
for children is woven throughout the cultural
context;
■ helps to create a cultural climate of family/child
support on the levels of policy/ programming/care
provision and cultural attitudes
or ethos;
■ helps adults and caregivers develop to their potential;
■ helps ensure that children have love, care, nutrition,
support, stimulation, language, safety,
and consistency in an environment that allows
them to grow and develop to their
fullest human potential;
■ helps children to become emotionally and physically
healthy, to be curious about their
world, to have self-confidence, to seek
mastery of skills, to develop thinking and
problem-solving abilities, and to be resilient.
It teaches them not only to adapt
to changing conditions but also to transform
situations;
■ serves as a catalyst or affects directly the way people
live their lives, economically, socially, and
in qualitative dimensions.
This definition of effectiveness is not bound to
a single <strong>ECCD</strong> “model”. Rather these outcomes
can be achieved within a variety of programming
strategies. It is worth stressing that the partners in
the Effectiveness Initiative are not interested,
<strong>ECCD</strong> Initiatives COORDINATORS’ NOTEBOOK, ISSUE 22
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