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

Activities
of the
Partners
The Bank is able to make two types of investments that may be
useful in funding <strong>ECCD</strong>. Both of these must be applied for from the
country level.
LILs (Learning and Innovation Loans) which allow for grants of up to 5
million dollars to test diverse programming strategies, and conduct
monitoring and evaluation activities. These loans are relatively quick
to set up (in about 60 days) and can be granted for 2–3 years;
APLs (Adjustable Program Loan) is for a long-term commitment to a
country program. The importance of this loan is the length of commitment
to the process of implementing programs.
The Bank sees its institutional advantage as 1) access to finance ministers
and governments, 2) an analytical capacity, and 3) ability to
finance projects. There is great interest from Bank leadership in partnerships
and collaboration between NGOs, governments, the Bank, and
the private sector.
For more Information about the World Bank’s <strong>ECCD</strong> programmes,
contact: Dr. Mary Young, Human Resource Development, World Bank
Room G 8-034, 1818 H St. N.W., Washington D.C. 20433, Tel: (202)
473-3427; Fax: (202) 522-3234, E-mail: myoung3@worldbank.org;
Susan Opper, Africa Desk, 1818 H St. N.W., Washington D.C. 20433,
Tel: (202) 473-9332, Fax: (202) 477-2900, E-mail: Sopper@worldbank.org
Save the Children USA
Save the Children’s Strong Beginnings programme does not single
out the youngest children, but rather seeks to address early childhood
development within the context of the entire span of childhood,
thus attending to young children’s needs within the context of
their ongoing evolution. Strong Beginnings has three key areas of
interest: <strong>ECCD</strong>, primary education, and Youth and Adult non-formal
education. Adolescence is a relatively new focus for SCF-USA.
The focus of the SCF’s Strong Beginnings effort is community
development, looking at how community groups in diverse contexts
can carry out child development programmes with minimal external
support and/or at minimal cost. It also looks at how parents can be
motivated to change through <strong>ECCD</strong> programmes, how <strong>ECCD</strong> can
be used as an entry point for other community development activities,
how functional literacy can be extended to include parenting
education, and whether communities can share in programme costs as
a way to foster programme sustainability.
An example is SCF/USA’s work in Mali with 655 community
schools, which aims to support children in their first four years of primary
school. In Mali, SCF is also supporting the development of different
models for supporting children’s transitions into school and
achieving success in the early years of schooling. One example
involves creating grandmothers’ groups which are linked to schools;
this supports families inter-generationally.
For more information about Strong Beginnings contact: Fred
Wood, Education Office, Save the Children, 54 Wilton Road, P.O.
Box 950, Westport, CT 06881, USA, Tel: (203) 221-4125, Fax: (203)
221-3799, E-mail: fwood@savechildren.org
Network Notes COORDINATORS’ NOTEBOOK, ISSUE 22
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