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Call for EOI: South Africa Early Childhood Care and Education Programme

Deadline: 11-Aug-2024

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.

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.

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 
  • 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.
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.

Eligibility Criteria
  • This procurement is open to applications from organisations which are legally established under the laws of any country. The organisation does not need to be legally established in South Africa at this stage but will need to do so before the RFP. The purpose of the RFP is to do a deeper assessment of the suitability of the shortlisted organizations at the EOI stage to ensure applicants have the capacity to deliver on the programs and the outcomes established.
  • At the EOI stage, organisations may apply as:
    • Single providers;
    • Single investors;
    • A consortium – investor-led or provider-led.
    • A consortium is defined as a group of legal entities that will form or have formed a joint venture, consortium, partnership, or association. In the case of a consortium, only the lead entity (grantee) needs to be a non-profit provider or a non-profit investor with a focus on education or children.
  • If applying as a single provider or single investor, organisations must either be prepared to act as the lead entity at the RFP stage (i.e., demonstrating financial viability), or to join a consortium that can demonstrate having secured sufficient funding to cover upfront costs for the RFP. If organisations come together as consortia at the EOI phase, each legal entity that is part of the consortium will confirm in their joint proposal that:
    • They have designated one party to act as a lead entity that will hold the contract, duly vested with the authority to legally bind the members of the joint venture or consortium jointly and severally.
    • This lead entity will need to either be a non-profit provider or a non-profit investor with a focus on children or education.
    • If they are successful at this and subsequent stages, the designated lead entity will sign a contract with EOF, which is an independent trust fund in UNICEF. The lead entity will be acting for and on behalf of all the member entities.
  • Selected grantees at RFP will be required to be non-profit organisations, but are allowed to:
    • Subcontract parts of the intervention to other entities, including for-profit entities; and
    • Choose to secure upfront funding and implementation support from social impact investors (non-profit or for profit)

For more information, visit EOF.