Early Childhood Development in Tanzania (ECD-T)

Overview

With the ECD Planning Grant, EGPAF will reflect on how the experiences and evidence collected from the previous Malezi projects could support the next phase of the Hilton Foundation-supported ECD programming, and work to sustain the gains of the Malezi project’s work to integrate ECD interventions within health systems. This will involve exploring how councils can self-sustain and self-fund Nurturing Care (NC) activities in the Tabora region through supporting local government initiatives, as well as examining the potential for scaling this approach in other EGPAF-supported regions.

The Planning Grant will also provide space for EGPAF to reflect on challenges/gaps identified during the implementation of NC activities in Tabora, including health worker shortages and CHW motivations. Simultaneously, EGPAF will plan future strategic partnerships and work with government stakeholders and new partners who use a health-systems strengthening approach. EGPAF will use these identified approaches to continue existing ECD activities in current districts and will also apply them to new districts.

The project will also explore other potential platforms that can be used to scale NC activities and potential approaches to motivate CHWs. The evidence collected through the Malezi research component will be used during the Planning Grant to identify aspects which have shown potential for scale, such as the use of radio and videos to increase knowledge in communities and improve CHW counseling skills.

Funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation