Portfolio Details
The Inclusive Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) Project was implemented by the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) with funding from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
SAFOD is a leading Southern African disability-focused network engaged in the coordination of activities of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in Southern Africa. In most of the countries, where SAFOD worked, either its affiliate federations or at least some of their member OPDs had been implementing Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes on the ground.
Yet, it was noted that there was a strong correlation between CBR and inclusive ECDE. Therefore, SAFOD sought to turn this theory into practice by embarking on this inclusive ECDE project.
The project started in 2017 with the aim of strengthening the capacity of OPDs and other community structures working in CBR programmes in three countries, namely Mozambique, Lesotho, and Zambia.
Through this project, SAFOD supported its national affiliate OPDs in the above-mentioned countries in increasing access to quality ECDE services for children with Special Needs Education (SEN).
Specifically, the project sought to achieve the following objectives:
Later, in 2019, based on the successes and lessons drawn from the three countries, the project was scaled up to focus on the development and advocacy of a regional inclusive ECDE strategy for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
The regional activities included hiring a consultant to draft the regional strategy; organising regional consultation meetings with key stakeholders working in the ECD and education sectors in the region, and holding validation workshops. among other things.