Between September 2023 and December 2024, Thrive implemented a project to support the design of a scalable, sustainable, community-based daycare centre model for children aged 2–4 in Tanzania, working in collaboration with the government of Tanzania, UNICEF, and key NGO partners such as Children in Crossfire and BRAC Tanzania. The goal was to inform national efforts to establish an early childhood development (ECD) centre in every Tanzanian community by 2025, a commitment in the national multi-sectoral early childhood development programme (NM-ECDP).
Context
The Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women, and Special Groups (MoCDGWSG) has developed evidence based curricula and national guidelines for community-based daycare centres. However, many struggle to comply with the standards and registration requirements. Recognising these challenges, the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), MoCDGWSG and UNICEF Tanzania are collaborating to identify a viable, sustainable and scalable ECD centre model.
Objectives and Approach
To identify ECD centre model principles that are effective, sustainable and suitable for scaling in the Tanzanian context, Thrive gathered stakeholder perspectives and global evidence to address five key research questions about the current national standards and criteria:
- What are the bottlenecks to scaling?
- What does the global evidence say?
- What are community, ward, district, regional and national level perceptions?
- What would the recommendations be for a revised set of (more scalable) principles?
- How do you design a scalable and sustainable quality assurance system that supports centres to move towards the national standards over time?
Key Activities and Achievements
National stakeholder consultation
- Developed a conceptual framework for ECD centres.
- Carried out literature and policy reviews
- Held five national stakeholder workshops involving representatives from the Tanzania Early Childhood Network, MoCDGWSG, PO-RALG and UNICEF, as well as civil society and NGOs such as Children in Crossfire and BRAC Tanzania.
Regional to community level stakeholder consultation and piloting
- Carried out in-depth qualitative research in the Dodoma region to understand local needs and preferences at regional, district, ward and community levels
- Adapted and piloted the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI) Together in Practice Toolkit to assess caregiver-child interactions and learning processes—areas previously under-emphasised in Tanzanian monitoring.
- Ran a reliability training session with stakeholders, including district social welfare officers and PO-RALG and MoCDWSG representatives and non-governmental early childhood education partners.
- Piloted the tool in 49 centres across three districts in the Dodoma region Dodoma City (urban), Kongwa (semi-urban), and Chamwino (rural) areas to assess reliability of data collection, feasibility, and adherence to national standards.
Outputs and Contributions
- Based on the insights gathered, Thrive developed an entry-point ECD centre model for Tanzania
- Thrive also provided recommendations for a scalable quality assurance system to support gradual alignment with national standards.