What social investors need to consider when investing in Early Childhood Development during and post Covid-19

175 000 jobs are at risk and over 30 000 ECD centres may close as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, the Department of Social Development (DSD) has recently proposed allocating R1.3 billion to create 36 000 short-term ECD centre “compliance monitoring” jobs. The sector has responded to this proposal quite forcefully, urging the DSD to consider using this funding to protect and hopefully save as many at-risk jobs as possible. One million children will be potentially affected by mass ECD closures and thousands of jobs (and livelihoods) hang in the balance.

The Impact of COVID-19

The ECD ecosystem has been severely impacted by Covid-19. The pandemic has impacted children’s access to ECD services, as well as ECD NGOs capability to provide these services due to the strained economic climate. The ecosystem is comprised for those that offer ECD services to children and those that benefit from ECD services. ECD programmes are largely provided by NPOs and subsistence entrepreneurs or micro-social enterprises, most of whom are Black women. The provision of services has largely been driven by demand, with services emerging in response to community needs. Those that serve the poorest communities are often small and informal, operating out of private homes or rented venues and consisting of only a few staff members earning subsistence stipends, typically without formal employment contracts or benefits.

Disruption of Early Child Development

The disruption to everyday life means that many young children are at home unable to attend early childhood education and care, and are therefore now entirely reliant on their caregivers for nurturing care and to meet their developmental needs (physical, emotional, social and cognitive). This added burden on families to balance childcare and work responsibilities, compounded by economic instability and social isolation in many cases, is fertile ground for home environments characterised by toxic stress. We know that optimal brain development requires a stimulating and enriching environment, adequate nutrition, learning opportunities and social interaction with attentive caregivers.

Under the current pandemic context, access to these opportunities will likely be severely restricted, compromising the healthy developmental trajectory of many children. Unsafe conditions, negative interactions and lack of educational opportunities during the early years can lead to irreversible outcomes, which can affect a child’s potential for the remainder of his or her life.

Impact of Covid-19 on Children

South Africa has seen exponential growth in the number of Covid-19 cases across the country. Whether this indicates that we are reaching (or passing) “the peak” remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the virus, and its consequences, are going to be with us for a very long time. With many households losing their sources of income as a result of the pandemic and the associated lockdown, our country is at the cusp of a malnutrition crisis, with vulnerable children not receiving their main meal of the day (exacerbated by closed ECD centres). Before the pandemic, 27% of children in SA suffered from stunted growth and development from chronic malnutrition; malnutrition contributed, as an underlying factor, in at least two-thirds of child deaths in South Africa; a quarter of pregnant women reported going hungry; and 25% of households lived below the food poverty line. For the poorest 40% of the population, there is no nutritional reserve and this economic shock will push many children into acute malnutrition. Worsening nutrition will increase the number of low birth weight babies, and increase susceptibility to infections, firstly to Covid-19 and then of childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea and measles. This could result in secondary epidemics, especially if health services are already overwhelmed by Covid-19.

Immediate and long-term negative effects

Both the immediate and long-term negative effects of the pandemic on children’s health and development are likely to disproportionately affect families in communities with high concentrations of poverty, lack of access to quality healthcare and affordable childcare, food and housing insecurity, and limited services for family support. Similarly, the ongoing crisis is likely to exacerbate the situation of children living in home environments characterised by a lack of access to developmentally appropriate resources, such as toys and books, low levels of stimulation and responsive care, or inadequate supervision prior to the crisis. It is also unrealistic to expect caregivers, particularly those with low levels of education or limited caregiving skills to begin with, to be able to offset the resulting gaps from children’s lack of attendance to education and other care opportunities.

The closure of ECD centres is having a devastating effect on highly vulnerable children and their families. Poverty, substance abuse, toxic stress, ill health and child abuse make many homes unsafe or even harmful settings for young children. Organisations supporting victims of child abuse and gender-based violence have reported a surge in cases since lockdown began in South Africa. Attendance at an ECD programme provided some relief from these home environments and helps children to build resilience.

Impact of Covid-19 on ECD organisations

The ECD workforce is largely female and Black African, which holds across all job titles including principals, practitioners and other staff. Currently, just over 2.7 million children access an ECD programme, of which less than 700 000 currently benefit from government ECD subsidies (which provide minimal support at R15 per child per day, paid to the ECD operator). Often, the subsidy is paid to operators on the basis of attendance and is therefore also subject to unpredictable fluctuations outside of operators’ control. The longer-term impacts of the lockdown on ECD operators’ sustainability are a major concern.

Many caregivers who sent their children to ECD programmes before the lockdown will be income-constrained after the lockdown is lifted, and others may have lost their income sources altogether. This means that caregivers may not immediately be able to send their children back to ECD programmes or pay fees. With DSD cutting the ECD subsidy by 40% as a result of the pandemic; some ECD centres (estimated at 13 000) still have not received their ECD subsidy grant since April, which impacts on the ECD centres sustainability.

Resource and Training Organisations

Similarly there are more than 100 ECD non-profit Resource and Training Organisations in South Africa that have pioneered a rich variety of contextually appropriate ECD programmes and resources over the last 40 years and have been the major provider of training ECD teachers and practitioners, development of teaching and learning materials, providing on-site support and quality assurance.

Government has largely looked to the NPO sector to support delivery of early learning services through centres, playgroups, toy libraries, educational home visiting and support for childminders. An analysis was done by the National ECD Alliance of 43 ECD NPOs who completed a survey during April 2020. All organisations indicated that they had already or were considering implementing retrenchments, temporary layoffs, salary cuts, short time pay and unpaid leave. A third of these NPOs are facing closure and this has already resulted in closure of some ECD programmes.

ECD NPOs hold much of the intellectual capital, expertise, skill and experience needed to provide and scale-up early learning programmes to ensure every child in South Africa has the opportunity of reaching his or her potential so that we can grow our human capital, our economy and become a winning nation.

Social investors have a critical role to play

While the Covid-19 pandemic threatens our world, babies are still being born and young children still need development. We are likely to see a very different ECD landscape emerging; one in which parental involvement will be paramount to ensure that children not only reach their developmental milestones but are able to access ECD services. Social investors have a critical role to play during this critical time for the ECD sector. Wherever possible, stopgap funding should be made available to ECD centres and NPOs, to ensure they can provide services wherever necessary (including providing support for ECD centres to re-open safely once they are able to). In addition, social investors should take a proactive approach, and invest in parent/caregiver behavioural change programmes focused on the importance of early learning in the home (an area that has historically been neglected by donors). In addition to this, scaling-up of access to non-centre-based services is essential in the medium and long term in order to reach children who are not able to go to ECD centres due to financial constraints.

The ECD sector finds itself in dire straits. Social investors, along with other stakeholders, must step up to limit the damage to the sector and ensure that it can bounce back as quickly as possible.

Shamiso Chideme is a Social Investment Specialist at Tshikululu Social Investments, South Africa’s leading social investment manager. For more than 22 years they have partnered with investors to achieve sustainable social impact for today and for generations to come. Tshikululu views social investment as any financial commitment, be it grant making or impact investing, that seeks to drive, enable and measure social impact, which it does by partnering with clients, developmental agencies and other collaborative partners. Go to www.tshikululu.org.za for more information.