3 July 2024
Overview of the Programme
The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), in collaboration with the South Africa's Department of Basic Education (DBE), is set to launch the largest Outcomes-Based Financing (OBF) Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in the sector to date. This groundbreaking initiative aims to expand access to quality early learning opportunities and enhance child development outcomes for underserved children aged 0 to 5 in South Africa. Using the Outcomes-Based Funding (OBF) model, payments are made to grantees only upon achieving predefined outcomes, often referred to as payment metrics.
This programme presents an exceptional opportunity for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) grantees or consortia to deliver measurable results through an innovative and transformative model. The initiative has the potential to impact up to 100,000 children in vulnerable areas across South Africa.
The outcomes of the programme cover multiple dimensions of ECCE. The selected grantees will play a crucial role in:
Establishing new home-based and community-based Early Learning Programmes (ELPs) in areas with access gaps. There are two access pathways that providers can follow: 1) establish ELPs in private homes, or 2) use existing infrastructure in the community (e.g., church or community centre) to provide ECCE services.
Ensuring access and regular attendance of children at these centres.
Supporting existing ELPs in areas where there is enough supply of ELPs to serve the community. This approach involves partnering with existing ELPs to improve their quality.
Enhancing the quality of settings and practices, including through inclusive, and child-centred approaches aligned with the national standards.
Improving children's holistic development outcomes.
Support the registration of eligible ELPs.
EOF plans to launch this programme in Q3 2025. Selected grantees are expected to start community outreach during the same period.
Context
In line with its commitment to strategically allocate resources towards expanding access and improving the quality of Early Learning Programmes (ELPs), South Africa’s Department of Basic Education (DBE) has been exploring innovative financing models and in particular OBF. These model aims to bring together a wide range of public and private stakeholders in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector to drive towards universal access to ECCE by 2030. The DBE has led and has been closely involved in co-developing and launching this three-year-long ECCE outcomes fund, with the support of the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF). This initiative is considered part of a larger strategy, with the intention of scaling it up in later phases.
Purpose of this Expression of Interest
EOF eagerly anticipates receiving Expressions of Interest (EOI) from experienced service providers, consortia, and/or investors in South Africa and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector. Applicants will be selected through a two-stage procurement process to become grantees.
The first stage, the EOI stage, aims to shortlist applicants based on an initial assessment. This assessment will evaluate the suitability of proposals for implementing the programme, considering the applicants’ track record and preliminary intervention approach. Organisations shortlisted during the EOI stage will be eligible to bid in the second stage, the Request for Proposals (RFP) stage.
The EOI materials provided in the documents below contain all the necessary information to prepare and submit applications.
Key Deadlines
EOI launch: July 3rd, 2024
Deadline for bidders to submit questions in writing on ToR: July 19th, 2024
Pre-bidding conference to clarify questions: July 23rd, 2024
Public summary of conference and any amendments to the ToR: July 30th, 2024
Deadline for submission of proposals: August 11th, 2024
How to Apply?
An EOI proposal should contain the following:
Applicant information form
Eligibility documentation
Technical proposal and financial viability form
Additional information form
Supporting documents
Further information on these documents, the process for asking clarifying questions and more can be found in the EOI Materials packet provided below. There is an additional document with templates for all documents to be submitted with the proposal.
The deadline for submission of proposals is August 11th, 2024.
All proposals should be submitted before this deadline to procurement@edufundmea.org, clearly labelled “South Africa Early Childhood Education Outcomes Fund - Expression of Interest (EOI)”.
Applicants should ensure that the attachments do not exceed 25MB per email. If necessary, proposals can be sent in more than one email, each clearly labelled in the subject line.
This is very interesting, our children are in good hands, their future is looking good with such initiatives, thank you to all involved.