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From Early Childhood Development Policy to Sustainability: The Fragility of Community-Based Childcare Services in Malawi

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Abstract

Over the past 20 years, more than 6,000 community-based childcare centers (CBCCs) have been created in mostly rural areas of Malawi. Although the original purpose of these CBCCs was to meet the care needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the services have since expanded their mandate to provide early development and learning opportunities as well as part-time childcare for working parents. The Malawi national policy is to expand this network of CBCCs to improve early childhood development outcomes, however, sustainability of these services has been an ongoing challenge. This article discusses the roots and extent of this sustainability challenge, drawing on lessons learned from recent fieldwork conducted as part of a baseline study.

Résumé

Au cours des 20 dernières années, plus de 6,000 centres de la petite enfance communautaires (CPEC) ont été créés dans des régions principalement rurales du Malawi. Bien que l’objectif initial de ces centres était de répondre aux besoins de soins des orphelins et des enfants vulnérables touchés par la pandémie du VIH/SIDA, les services ont depuis élargi leur mandat pour favoriser le développement et l’apprentissage de la petite enfance ainsi qu’offrir la garde d’enfant à temps partiel aux parents qui travaillent. La politique nationale du Malawi va étendre ce réseau de CPEC pour améliorer les résultats relatifs au développement de la petite enfance; cependant, la durabilité de ces services a été un défi continuel. Cet article traite des racines et de l’ampleur de ce défi de durabilité en s’appuyant sur des leçons tirées des travaux récents menés sur le terrain dans le cadre d’une étude de base.

Resumen

En los últimos 20 años, más de 6.000 centros comunitarios para la primera infancia han sido creados, principalmente, en zonas rurales de Malawi. Aunque el propósito original de estos centros fue proteger y proporcionar asistencia a los huérfanos y niños afectados por las pandemias de VIH/SIDA, los servicios se han ampliado para proporcionar estimulación temprana y oportunidades de aprendizaje así como ofrecer cuidado infantil a tiempo parcial para los padres que trabajan. La política nacional de Malawi es ampliar esta red de centros comunitarios para así mejorar el desarrollo durante la primera infancia. Sin embargo, la sustentabilidad de estos centros ha sido un desafío constante. Este artículo aborda las raíces y el alcance de la sustentabilidad de los centros comunitarios para la primera infancia, aprovechando las lecciones aprendidas en el trabajo de campo realizado recientemente como parte de un estudio de línea de base.

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Notes

  1. The total enrollment in preprimary education (regardless of age), as a percentage of the total population of official preprimary education age.

  2. GNI per capita is the gross national income, converted to U.S. dollars using the World Bank Atlas method, divided by the midyear population.

  3. The MoGCSW selected the four pilot districts to provide adequate representation of the regions in Malawi.

  4. The study was approved by the Malawi National Commission for Science and Technology and University of California Berkeley’s Institutional Review Board.

  5. A total of 15 CBCCs were not visited: 2 CBCCs did not exist, 2 were not visited due to impassable roads, 6 CBCCs listed were duplicates of other CBCCs in the study, and 5 CBCCs were not found in the districts/villages indicated in the mapping data.

  6. As discussed below, even operational centers needed to pass secondary eligibility criteria to remain in the sample.

  7. Of the 225 centers with information on period of closure, only one CBCC was from Balaka district. Because verification visits were an unexpected component of the baseline data collection activities, enumerators were only specifically instructed to ask for period of closure information a couple of weeks into the verification visits (when most of Balaka district had already been completed).

  8. The remaining 2 CBCCs had been closed for 7–12 months.

  9. Initial results of the impact evaluation of these interventions will be available in 2014.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are members of a research team led by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Lia C. H. Fernald (University of California-Berkeley), Dr. Berk Özler (University of Otago and The World Bank), and Dr. Michelle J. Neuman (The World Bank). The authors would like to acknowledge the officials of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare for their leadership on the PECD project and their collaboration with the external evaluation. Josefine Durazo skillfully managed the baseline study. We would like to thank the survey teams at Wadonda Consult, especially field coordinator James Mwera. We appreciate funding received from the Rapid Social Response Multi-Donor Trust Fund and Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund. All findings and interpretations in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their respective institutions.

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Correspondence to Michelle J. Neuman.

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Neuman, M.J., McConnell, C. & Kholowa, F. From Early Childhood Development Policy to Sustainability: The Fragility of Community-Based Childcare Services in Malawi. IJEC 46, 81–99 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-014-0101-1

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