Develop Indicators to be included in the National Multisectoral ECD Scorecard

Ifakara Health Institute has partnered with the Tanzania Early Childhood Development Network (TECDEN) to develop indicators for the National Multisectoral Early Childhood Development Programme (NM-ECD) scorecard, aiming to facilitate decision-making, improve data quality, and optimize the effectiveness of multi-sectoral Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs.

These indicators will complement the ECD dashboard developed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), aimed at merging information systems for monitoring interventions.

Background of NM-ECDP
In December 2021, the Government of Tanzania, in collaboration with ECD stakeholders, launched the National Multisectoral Early Childhood Development Programme (NM-ECDP) 2021/22-2025/26. The NM-ECDP seeks to accelerate early childhood development gains by enhancing the multi-sectoral approach to young children’s nurturing care. Inspired by the Nurturing Care Framework, the programme supports a coordinated approach to putting into action various laws and policies relevant to ECD focusing on addressing the holistic developmental needs of children aged 0 – 8 years. 

Learn more about the NM-ECDP 2022-2026 here.

To monitor and evaluate the NM-ECDP from 2021/2022 to 2025/26, the country has taken significant steps to invest in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) for NM-ECDP. The information generated from MEL will guide decision-making at various levels, including the community, regional and district councils, and national levels.

Supporting the implementation of NM-ECDP is TECDEN, which collaborates with the government and all ECD stakeholders to catalyze and support the Programme across Tanzania Mainland.

The country’s investment
1. Development of ECD Dashboard
UNICEF provided valuable support to the government to develop and pilot a first-of-its-kind National ECD Dashboard, a tool and MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) mechanism within DHIS2. This dashboard brings together a set of impact, outcome, and output indicators across the five ECD domains to monitor child development progress.

2. Development of ECD scorecard
To complement the ECD dashboard developed by UNICEF that aimed at merging information systems for monitoring interventions, TECDEN is currently developing the scorecard which is also known as the balancing scorecard to report short-term indicators for assessing ECD performance. The tool will be vital for policymakers making decisions on ECD.