๐ Tender Overview
Project ID: P173151
Region: Africa east
Commitment Amount: Us$ 35.00 million
Total Project Cost: Us$ 35.00 million
Improving human capital development outcomes requires a focus on improving social and economic outcomes for individuals from birth through to adulthood.The proposed project aims to take a life-cycle approach to developing human capital with a focus on three components, namely, Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE), Basic Education, and support for youth to improve their chances for a better life and opportunities in the future (Table 2). The components were chosen basedon: (i) government priorities and commitment for reform in specific areas; (ii) coordination with other development partners (a full list of what other partners are doing is inAnnex 2); and (iii) addressing immediate priorities arising from COVID-19 to start building a digital learning system. The details of these components will be refined by the Government during project preparation The focus will be on ensuring that all children are entitled to, and should receive, a comprehensive package of services so that that they are able to reach their full potential. Within these components, there are four cross-cutting issues: gender, inclusion, digital skills, and sustainability of interventions. Some elements of the project will also address the issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as access to online learning opportunities for the poorest children, retaining students in school, and access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in schools. The project will also focus on strengthening coordination and regulation at all levels of education, more specifically for ECDE and TVET.Component 1: Strengthening coordination and regulation of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) services and improving access to quality ECDE services38.Experience from other countries shows that a well-integrated multi-sectoral ECDE system has the following elements: (i) a strong ECDE system and enabling environment with commitment and budget from the Government; (ii) policies in place for early childhood development; (iii) a multi-sectoral ECDE strategy and implementation plan; (iv) multi-sectoral coordination between Ministries and stakeholders; (v)monitoring and evaluation; and (vi) standards in place for teacher training, the curriculum, learning environment, and a minimum package of multi-sectoral interventions for specific age groups i.e. 0 to 3-year-olds, 3 to 5-year-olds, and 5 to 8-year-olds.To support the Government of ESwatini to strengthen these elements, the project will focus on the following three sub-components: