Final Evaluation of the ECDE Project in Karamoja

Background
Save the Children in Uganda (SCiUG) has been supporting local governments and communities in 6 districts of Karamoja, implementing an Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) project and reached over 33,949 male and female beneficiaries. SCiUG has spearheaded the training of trainers for ECDE caregivers and has supported the development of an illustrated caregivers’ manual. 

The Karamoja ECDE project adopted an integrated approach to early childhood development and education, targets children aged 2-5 years, with a focus on early stimulation of the physical, cognitive and psychological maturation/development of children. This is built on concept of traditional child rearing practices with an integrated package of services and in built framework of child protection and participation.
Purpose/objective
To evaluate the project achievements at the outcome level, assess the role of ECDE in facilitating transition of children to ABEK and formal school and document lessons learnt and best practices. In addition make specific recommendations to Save the Children for improvement of the programme.

Methodology
The evaluation used both quantitative and qualitative designs, secondary and primary sources of data. The project documents were reviewed which included proposal, quarterly and annual reports. To ascertain the impact of the project, data was collected from areas where the project was not implemented.

The study was conducted in Kampala at the SCiUG headquarters and in sampled five sub counties in Moroto, Kotido and Nakapiripit districts of Karamoja region. Data was collected from, parents/guardians, children in and not in ECDE centres SCiUG staff, district local government partners in ECDE service delivery, caregivers, teachers in ABEK and primary schools, health personnel, livelihood service providers, community leaders.

Key findings
The supplementary feeding children at ECDE centres were the most important internal factor that enhanced the effectiveness in enrollment of children.
Early learning through stimulation, play and cognitive development carried out in ECDE centres was most effective in promoting ECDE; the children were enthusiastic in attending the centres and participation in the centres’ activities.
Children who transited from ECDE centres were more punctual, attended more regularly, had more interest in class and performed better than their counterparts who joined ABEK centres and primary schools straight from home.
The community either as individuals or groups  contributed to the success of the project for instance land for the centre, management committees, construction of shelters, identification of caregivers and mobilizing parents to enroll their children in centres.
There was lesser networking between the SCiUG ECDE project and the relevant sectors, hence home based nutritional practices and health status of children did not improve significantly although there was increased immunization coverage in centres.
The conceptualization at the design stage focused on age 2-5 and less attention paid to the pre-birth stage of child development and the infancy stage of 0-2 although development of a child begins at conception while learning begins at birth. 
The SCiUG ECDE project had a wide geographical coverage of 100 centres in six districts with a small budget implying the resources were thinly spread and minimal impact. ECDE elements like sanitation, hygiene, safe environment were not included in the design of the project.
There was low motivation of caregivers who managed all the activities at the ECDE centres and limited partnership with extension workers.

Recommendations
SCiUG should either scale down its geographical coverage of the project or mobilize financial resources commensurate with its current geographical scope of the project.
SCiUG should widen its conceptualisation of ECDE to encompass the pre- birth and infancy stages of ECDE.
The design of project should include households as direct participants involved in the care, socialization, early learning and protection of children. 
Water, sanitation and hygiene resources should be placed next to every ECDE centres because they are key to the very tenets and principles of ECDE itself.
SCiUG should endeavour to build safe ECDE centre structures that provide a safe environment and protection of children from the elements.
Due to high enrolment, the current centres are too small for the large numbers of children. Bigger ECDE centres could be constructed.
More caregivers need to be recruited and trained so as to reduce the low caretaker-child ratios in ECDE centres.
The welfare of caregivers needs to be put into consideration for they may lose morale to the detriment of the children’s welfare and the project’s sustainability and life span in the region.
Closer networking with personnel in livelihoods support is required if child nutrition within homes is to be attained.

Comments from the organisation, if any
SCIUG, the local government partners have put in a lot of time to have these centres established, they will continue to operate but more resources will be mobilised to support the centres. Scaling down a community based initiative is difficult learning from ABEK experience.
There is need to disseminate the findings of the evaluation to the district local government and the partners in a workshop and then copies of the report to be availed to them.