Building capacity for early childhood data generation and use in Africa

• In Event: Data Use in Early Childhood

Proposal

Data on early childhood education (ECE) are essential for improving pre-primary policies and programs. Reliable information on how children are learning and how teachers deliver instruction can be invaluable to stakeholders at all levels of an ECE system, from parents to policymakers. While there are many tools for measuring child development, early learning and the quality of early education environments, less is known about how that data can be used to improve pre-primary systems over time.

Since 2019, Together for Early Childhood Evidence: Consortium on Pre-Primary Data and Measurement in Africa has been exploring how the use and application of data can lead to positive change in ECE systems and to accelerate country-level action to improve young children’s early learning experiences.

Together for Early Childhood Evidence convenes policymakers, researchers and other early learning experts to bridge the gap between research and practice. The consortium’s overarching goal is to increase national capacity for interpreting and applying data on early childhood education. Member countries engage in ongoing dialogue to exchange information and experiences as they work toward building data-driven ECE systems in their countries.

In our presentation, we will review the work to date of Together for Early Childhood Evidence initiative, with a particular focus on the country-driven efforts by local research and government teams in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, and South Africa. Together for Early Childhood Evidence has been supporting country-level activities to test and apply new data-driven approaches. In 2023, we launched Phase 3 and are currently supporting the five teams as they answer country-specific questions through data and measurement activities. Each inter-disciplinary team has reviewed their progress on national early childhood data and started thinking systematically about their goals for building data-informed quality early childhood systems.

In Rwanda, the team seeks to integrate access, child development, and quality data into existing government systems. They are exploring how to institutionalize ECE data collection and use within government systems. In Malawi, the team seeks to establish a data system as ECE is formalized within the government. They are planning to collect data on child outcomes and quality and thinking about how to make sure the data are useful to the broader ECD system. In South Africa, the team is exploring how to track young children over time through interoperable systems in the government. This work will build off national efforts in 2021-2022 to collect and use nationally representative data on South African preschool children’s learning outcomes. In Liberia, the team is working to establish a ECE registry and system. Their plans build from their recent efforts to map and document quality in ECE programs across the country. And in Ethiopia, the team will continue their work to build a data-driven early childhood system and may capitalize on new investments in the country to improve ECE quality, with a focus on children living in conflict and crisis-affected regions.

Authors

• Abbie Raikes, University of Nebraska, College of Public Health

• Rebecca Sayre Mojgani, ECD Measure