Monograph on Plan India's Experiences with Sustainable Early Childhood Education Interventions

Exploring sustainability dimensions in early childhood education models of Plan Program Units in five Indian States sharpens institutional learning in the education sector.

Being a child-focused organisation, Plan-India recognises the criticality of the early years (conception to six years) of a child's life and the impact that it can have on the overall development of the child.  Plan-India makes significant investments in early childhood care and development (ECCD) interventions through its NGO partners to promote within a rights perspective the survival, growth and development of young children in vulnerable communities in different parts of the country. Centre-based early childhood education (ECE) is an important dimension of Plan India's ECCD programming.

Sustainability is critical to the success of ECE interventions implemented and/or supported by NGOs. For Plan, sustaining ECE interventions assumes greater significance in the context of their long-term continuity therefore leading to an impact of the initiatives. Plan addresses the following broad sustainability dimensions in the context of ECE interventions.

• Financial/economic: Can NGO ECE interventions be sustained financially? How will resources be raised to make this happen? For instance, what about salaries of ECE workers, maintenance costs and costs of materials?
• Processes/Socio-cultural: This goes beyond the financial dimension and looks at the possibility of continued long-term dialogue/engagement on ECCD/ECE in local communities – what are the possibilities of developing a 'critical mass' of people in local communities who understand children's developmental needs in a holistic manner and constantly strive to address the same in their socio-cultural context?
• Institutional: What is the role of government/State in the context of decentralization, and leveraging of resources to support and continue NGO initiatives? What are the different ways in which government/NGO collaboration be promoted?
• Technical: What are the processes in place to ensure that requisite capacities are built in the case of teachers/workers, local communities (as in case of caregivers, CBOs, etc.)?

  New Concept supported Plan India to deepen the understanding on sustainability to study how different dimensions impact the sustainability of centre-based ECCD interventions. The four dimensions studied included: government linkages; organizational sustainability/ institutional viability; economic/ financial sustainability; and socio-cultural sustainability. The study was conducted among five Plan local partners NGO Program Units (PUs). In the five PUs selected for the study, the experiences of developing appropriate centre-based ECCD interventions with a long-term view for sustainability in a variety of contexts had generated an abundance of institutional learning
  The study methodology broadly involved desk review secondary information/ literature, group discussions and brief observations of selected centres. New Concept documented the experiences of Plan’s partner NGOs in the form of a monograph to promote learning among key stakeholders such as NGOs, local communities and Government.   

  A brief description of the ECE interventions selected for documentation.              

• Shri Bhuvaneshwari Mahila Ashram (SBMA), Tehri Garhwal, Uttaranchal: concept of 'Apni Balwadi' (our Balwadi) and the cost-sharing arrangement with the 'Balwadi Management Committees' (BMC) to strengthen financial resources.
• CASP Delhi: cost-sharing arrangements with local communities on Project run Balwadi centers in unauthorised slums in the Govindpuri area of Delhi.                     
• Urmul Bajju, Bikaner, Rajasthan: Urmul implemented ICDS program in 124 centres in Kolayat block and its efforts improve the ICDS system in terms of monitoring, quality, training, as well as expansion of ICDS services in the area.
• Samskar, Nizamabad, Andhra Pradesh: Balwadi program mainstreaming and adoption by Government.
• Samuha, Raichur, Karnataka: Convergence of Bal Kendras with the Government ICDS system and community contribution to supplement the Anganwadi centres with additional human resources. 

Download: Sustaining Early Childhood Interventions - Perspectives from Plan India

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