Programme Director,
Deputy Minister of Social Development, Mama Bongi Maria Ntuli,
MEC of Social Development, Dr Pemmy Majodina,
Chairperson, Mr Malose Kekana and other members of the National Development Agency (NDA) Board here present,
Distinguished leaders and captains of the business sector,
Representatives of government and civil society organisations,
Esteemed guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning and a warm welcome to you all at this launch of adopt-an-ECD campaign.
From the outset, let me thank you all for attending and participating in today’s event, and for giving up your valuable early morning time to demonstrate your commitment to our nation’s children. And let me congratulate the National Development Agency (NDA) for successfully organising and getting us here together today.
We welcome the opportunity to consult with you as we launch this important campaign.
We convened this business breakfast meeting because of our strongly held view that providing an early start for a better future for South African children is a shared national responsibility.
Former President Nelson Mandela said, “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Pursuant to the vision of building a caring society, and as part of our quest to tackle the root causes of poverty, in particular intergenerational poverty, we identified the provision of Early Childhood Development (ECD) as key to our success towards achieving Vision 2030 goal.
Ladies and gentlemen, the most important investment we can make in the future of our nation is in education. Access to high-quality early childhood education is among the smartest investments for the future. A range of research studies and policy declarations assert that early childhood education makes a real and lasting difference in children’s lives. This poses a challenge to all of us to ensure that early childhood development becomes a core and integrated part of education provision.
During the Budget Vote Speech in the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, we reiterated our commitment to continue to expand the coverage of ECD services and to deliver on our mandate to provide universal ECD services by 2014.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need your assistance to ensure the continued priority of this vital area which will guarantee a healthy start for all children. Numerous economic studies also document the high rate of return on investment in the early phase of our children’s development.
Furthermore, the National Development Plan (Vision 2030) acknowledges the significant role that ECD can play in achieving the country’s shared goals for socio economic advancement. We therefore need to recognise and actualise the potential of our greatest assets– our children.
By launching this campaign here today, we seek to reaffirm our government‘s commitment to improve access and quality of education and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
At the heart of this commitment is a core belief that we can only build a caring and prosperous society by investing in the future of our children. However, we know that government cannot do it alone. And that is why we are launching this campaign here today particularly to mobilise the private sector to work together with us to address the challenges in the sector.
The findings from the ECD diagnostic review report show that only twenty percent of 0-4-year-olds children in the poorest forty percent of households have access to some form of out-of-home care, including early childhood care and education programmes and centres. Infrastructure is also one of the main challenges for ECD centres.
The most important task that we should address collectively is how we ensure that in every community we have adequately resourced ECD facilities that enhance learning opportunities for children. For this reason, today’s function is very timely and relevant as it is aligned to our government’s priorities.
Ladies and gentlemen, the provision of universal early childhood development is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Social Development. Following the diagnostic review report and the resolutions of the ECD conference held in 2012, we have approved a Five-Year Integrated ECD Programme of Action (2013-2018).
The Programme of Action identified the urgent need to improve rural infrastructure, human resource capacity, a new comprehensive funding model, and amendment of the Children’s Act. Accordingly, we will finalise a national policy, which will define the ECD service package and make it a public good.
We are working tirelessly on other strategic issues in the Integrated ECD Programme of Action. For example, we are currently conducting a national audit of ECD services throughout the country. We are also conducting a costing exercise for the Integrated Programme of Action.
I am therefore pleased to see that today’s function is dedicated to this very valuable aspect of our work, and I urge you all to support this campaign. The purpose of the “Adopt an ECD Campaign” is to facilitate, advocate and lobby for expanded access to provision of ECD in poor communities.
The campaign is premised on the assumption that South Africa commands sufficient resources to meet current and future needs of learners in the ECD sector. Therefore, improved access to ECD can create a solid foundation for development, lifelong learning and mitigate children’s vulnerabilities, particularly intergenerational poverty. For this reason, we will continue to ensure that our efforts to expand access to ECD services take into account the need to fight the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
The thrust towards achieving universal early childhood development is aimed at ensuring that our country achieves the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals which aim at eradicating poverty.
We can all agree that education is the passport to a better life. Without an education, it will be difficult for our children to take up their rightful place in society and in the world.
As part of our long term plan, the NDA will continue to contribute to the ECD sector through interventions that support food security at ECD sites, strengthen the institutional, leadership and management capacity, as well as improve the infrastructure of ECD sites.
Through this campaign, the NDA will leverage its institutional capacity and geographic footprint to provide ongoing support to ECD sites that receive support as part of the campaign. In addition, the NDA will devote considerable after-care support to ensure that the investments made in this sector are sustainable.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must emphasise that all ECD centres have to comply with relevant legislation. We remain deeply concerned about unregistered ECD centres.
We reiterate that our aim is to strengthen all centres hence we have been calling on unregistered ones to register. This will advance our vision to provide transformed, integrated, and accessible and quality partial care and ECD services in partnership with stakeholders outside government.
I therefore welcome you all here again, once more, and again I thank you for dedicating your valuable time to better the interest of our future generations.
Let us work together to increase the number of children who benefit from ECD services in rural and informal settlements.
Thank you.
