Aisha Yousafzai
Introduction
Scaling Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs requires adequate and sustainable financing. Without proper funding, even the best-designed programs cannot reach all children or maintain quality over time. This article explores various financing strategies that governments and partners can use to support the expansion and sustainability of ECD services.
Why Sustainable Financing Matters
- Ensures long-term program continuity beyond pilot phases or donor projects.
- Supports workforce salaries, training, infrastructure, and materials.
- Enables monitoring, evaluation, and quality improvement activities.
- Facilitates equity by targeting resources to underserved populations.
Sources of ECD Financing
- Domestic Public Funding
- Government budgets are the most reliable source for sustained financing.
- Includes allocations from ministries of health, education, social protection, and finance.
- Prioritizing ECD in national budgets signals political commitment.
- External Donor Funding
- Provides critical initial investments, especially in low-income countries.
- Donor funds often support program development, capacity building, and innovation.
- Should be aligned with national priorities to ensure smooth transition to domestic funding.
- Private Sector and Philanthropy
- Corporate social responsibility initiatives and foundations can support innovation and scale-up.
- Partnerships with private providers can expand service delivery options.
- Household Contributions
- In some settings, families pay fees for services.
- Careful design needed to avoid excluding poor families.
Financing Strategies and Mechanisms
- Budget Advocacy and Prioritization
- Use evidence on ECD benefits to advocate for increased government funding.
- Engage parliamentarians, ministries of finance, and civil society.
- Results-Based Financing (RBF)
- Incentivizes providers based on achieving agreed targets.
- Can improve service quality and accountability.
- Pooling Funds Across Sectors
- Joint financing mechanisms for integrated ECD services reduce fragmentation.
- Enables coordinated spending and resource efficiency.
- Innovative Financing
- Social impact bonds, development impact bonds, or blended finance models mobilize private capital.
- Can introduce new resources and foster accountability.
Challenges to Financing ECD
| Challenges | Approaches to Address Them |
| Limited government budgets and competing priorities | Demonstrate economic returns of investing in ECD |
| Fragmented funding streams | Promote integrated budgeting and multisectoral coordination |
| Overreliance on external donors | Develop transition plans and increase domestic resource mobilization |
| Equity concerns | Design subsidies or sliding scales to support disadvantaged families |
Case Study Example
In Jamaica, the government increased its domestic budget allocation for ECD after a cost-benefit analysis showed that every dollar invested returned multiple dollars in economic gains. The Ministry of Finance now includes ECD as a priority sector, funding preschool expansion and nutrition programs sustainably.
Financing is the backbone of scaling quality Early Childhood Development programs. Governments, donors, and partners must collaborate to ensure adequate, predictable, and equitable funding. Sustainable financing strategies secure the future of ECD programs, enabling them to reach every child with the services they need for healthy development.
Associate Professor of Global Health
Global Health and Population
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health