By Deogratias Mmana
Malawi has only managed to construct 72 decent Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres out of 150 from a $60 million (K102 billion) World Bank funded project.
The project is called Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity in Malawi. It is ending in June next year.
The project, running from 2018 to June 2024.
The objective is to improve coverage and utilization of early childhood development services with a focus on nutrition, stimulation and early learning from conception to 59 months.
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The project was supposed to benefit children in Rumphi, Mchinji, Ntcheu, Mangochi, Machinga, Neno, Chikwawa, Zomba, Likoma, Mwanza, Dowa, Thyolo and Chiradzulu, according to the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare.
Only 72 out of 150 centres constructed
An analysis on the status of ECD in Malawi by senior assistant social welfare officer in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Jim Wotchi, shows that only 72 CBCCs have been constructed out of the 150. Few others are still at foundation level.
“ECD infrastructure has moved from 11 percent of purposely built CBCCs to 25 percent,” Wotchi said.
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He said in some cases, many contractors abandoned the projects after discovering that the sites were too far from main roads and also the fall of the Kwacha which affected prices of materials.
“But renegotiations with the contractors have taken place and they are returning to the sites,” Wotchi said.
The World Bank office in Malawi was yet to respond to our questionnaire.
‘We can’t afford to lose this opportunity’
But National ECD Coalition coordinator Joylet Genda said Malawi does not have adequate conducive community-based childcare centres (CBCCs).
She said it would be a mistake to lose 78 model centres which are already funded.
“If completion of construction of the model CBCCs is not achieved within the project duration, since resources were already committed, a request for no-cost extension will be recommended to utilise the opportunity that the country has on financing the component of model CBCCs construction that had been committed by the development partner.
“We can’t afford to lose this opportunity. The funded model CBCCs are a great opportunity for the country and we really need to ensure that they are constructed,” Genda said.
Low number of children at ECD centres
According to the analysis, Malawi is far from making desirable achievements in the sector.
For example, out of 2,552,406 children supposed to access ECD, only 1,075,985 representing 42.2 percent are doing so.
Of the figure, 839,488 children are at ECD centres. Further, only 567,502 children completed a year of schooling during the 2022-2023 year.
“The country is likely not going to meet the 2025 goal of 70 percent of children assessing ECD services established by the 2020-2030 National Education Sector Investment Plan [Nesip] by 2023,” the analysis shows.
According to Wotchi, the number of active ECD centres increased from 9,783 in 2009 to 16,025 in 2023 of which 13,295 are CBCCs.
According to Nesip, the target is 14,720 ECD centres by 2025 meaning that the rate of growth has surpassed the projections for 2023 and 2024 but does not automatically translate into increased enrolments.
“It is therefore important that the government and partners should make strides to attract and retain more children into the ECD centres,” Wotchi said.
0% budget for ECD
The government has also not prioritized the budget for ECD.
The analysis says the budget as a percentage of the national budget ranged from 0.00 percent to 0.02 percent between 2013 and 2023.
International guidelines recommend allocating a minimum of 10 percent of the budget to ECD.
“Based on the data, reaching the 2 percent target by 2025 seems doubtful without significant adjustment allocation,” the paper reads.
Untrained caregivers
Malawi is also doing badly on caregivers. Many are not trained.
The analysis shows that there are 74,241 caregivers in the 13,295 public CBCCs and 10,920 caregivers in private CBCCs out of which only 28,937 are trained representing 39 percent.
The result shows that from 2013 to 2019, the proportion of caregivers who had received training stayed constant at 49 percent.
And in 2020, the percentage increased to 50 percent but decreased to 37 percent in 2023.
“This implies that the majority of the previously trained caregivers have stopped volunteering,” the analysis says.
Wotchi said those on payroll are only 2,051 mentors.
Value of ECD
According to the analysis, studies have confirmed the value and importance of ECD being improvement in cognitive, psychological, motor and language skills, improving learner enrolment and retention in primary school and impacting on adult outcomes such as educational attainment, health, work productivity and incomes.
