HANDS-ON Experience Learning
Ilifa Labantwana’s COVID-19 Response
OPPORTUNITY
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SEPTEMBER 2022
Give every child the benefit of early childhood development
THINK, PLAN, ACT AND ADAPT!
Ilifa Labantwana’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic provides important lessons for civil society on how to respond to increased demand for social services from low-resource communities in rural and semi-urban areas. From the onset of South Africa’s hard lockdown in March 2020, it was clear the government would not be able to address the humanitarian challenges associated with the pandemic on its own. Civil society groups partnered with one another, funders and government, trying to mitigate the loss of income, increasing hunger and lack of access to personal protective equipment (PPE). The early childhood development (ECD) sector – which is largely informal and dominated by women – was particularly vulnerable because it mainly consists of microsubsistence-based enterprises generating an income for the women who run them and their staff. Disruptions to ECD programmes impede the ability of mothers to take up income-earning opportunities because they tend to shoulder the burden of childcare.
It’s important to note that registration is a complex process that requires approval from several government departments and certain resources, and as such is beyond the reach of most informal ECD practitioners.
At the height of the pandemic, thousands of ECD sites were forced to close and livelihoods were threatened. Unregistered ECD programmes, and the women who run them, were most at risk. Millions of children faced hunger and the loss of essential ECD services such as early learning and nutrition programmes. Civil society rallied in response and documented the impact of the pandemic on the sector with an April 2020 report, The Plight of the ECD Workforce.
It had two major objectives:
Ilifa Labantwana is committed to quality ECD for all children. Over the years, it has worked with the government and a range of implementing partners to demonstrate effective delivery mechanisms for a suite of quality, age-appropriate early childhood development programmes. Ilifa spearheaded an ambitious response that brought urgent relief to the ECD sector at a time when it was most needed. It mobilised resources and partnerships, raised R36-million in funds and launched the Early Childhood Development COVID-19 Response Project in September 2020.
1 to help unregistered South African ECD programmes
withstand the pressure of the pandemic and meet stringent government COVID-19 protocols to re-open; and
2 to see if ECD sites serving poor children could be used
as nodes for delivering nutrition interventions, using electronic vouchers.
GIVE EVERY CHILD THE BENEFIT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
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