Malawi - Protecting Early Childhood Development in Malawi Impact Evaluation Survey 2013

The Government of Malawi recognizes that investment in early childhood development (ECD) is a cost-effective strategy to meet its development objectives in areas of health, nutrition, education, and social protection. In Malawi, ECD is delivered through an extensive network of community initiated and owned centers for the most vulnerable children under the age of six, known as Community-based Childcare Centers (CCBCs). The recent global food, fuel, and financial crises hit Malawi hard. Constrained government budgets and activities for ECD have jeopardized the service delivery of the existing ECD centers which cover about a third of all 3-6 year old children. From 2010 to 2012, the Protecting Early Childhood Development Project (PECD) aimed to mitigate the negative effects of the recent global crises on young children and to start building foundations against future crises. A rigorous impact evaluation of the PECD project in Malawi has been designed to test interactions between existing approaches to improve quality in the preschool sector to maximize effects for primary school readiness. The impact evaluation will test the effectiveness of different approaches to improve quality of ECD Centers, parenting knowledge and practices, and child development and school readiness. The evaluation follows a cluster-randomized control trial design in which 199 CBCCs in four of Malawi’s 28 districts were randomized after baseline into one of three treatment arms or to a control arm. This Impact Evaluation (IE) has three primary research objectives, which are both academically important and pertinent for policy makers in low-income countries: (1) To evaluate the effect of intensive training and mentoring of teachers andcaregivers at CBCCs in rural sub-Saharan Africa on young children’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development; (2) To determine how can cash incentives be used to retain teachers and caregivers and make them more effective; (3) To assess whether parenting education can be an effective substitute or complement to the efforts to improve preschool quality with respect to child development outcomes.The baseline survey was conducted between September 30, 2011 and February 17, 2012. The midline data was collected between May 13, 2013 and October 17, 2013. The endline survey is proposed for 2014. Data collection at midline involved the administration of the mother/guardian and CBCC questionnaires, enumerator observations at the CBCC, and measurement of child development.

马拉维政府认识到，对早期儿童发展（Early Childhood Development, ECD）的投入是一项符合成本效益的策略，可助力其实现卫生、营养、教育与社会保护领域的发展目标。
在马拉维，早期儿童发展服务依托广泛的社区发起并自主运营的托育网络，服务对象为6岁以下的弱势儿童，这类机构被称为社区托育中心（Community-based Childcare Centers, CCBCs）。
近期全球粮食、能源与金融危机对马拉维造成了严重冲击，政府预算紧缩导致早期儿童发展相关活动受限，进而危及现有早期儿童发展中心的服务供给——这些中心覆盖了全国约三分之一的3至6岁儿童。
2010至2012年间，保护早期儿童发展项目（Protecting Early Childhood Development Project, PECD）旨在缓解近期全球危机对幼儿群体的负面影响，并为应对未来危机奠定基础。
马拉维针对该项目开展了严谨的影响评估，旨在检验学前教育领域现有提质路径之间的交互作用，以最大化实现儿童小学入学准备的效果。
本次影响评估将检验不同路径在提升社区托育中心服务质量、育儿知识与实践水平，以及促进儿童发展与入学准备方面的有效性。
该评估采用整群随机对照试验（cluster-randomized control trial）设计，从马拉维28个行政区中选取4个行政区内的199所社区托育中心，在完成基线调查后将其随机分配至三个干预组或一个对照组。
本影响评估（IE）设有三项核心研究目标，兼具学术价值与低收入国家政策制定者的实际需求：
1. 评估撒哈拉以南非洲农村地区社区托育中心的教师与照护者接受强化培训及指导后，对幼儿生理、情感与认知发展的影响；
2. 探究如何通过现金激励留住教师与照护者，并提升其工作效能；
3. 评估在改善儿童发展结局方面，育儿教育能否作为提升学前教育质量的有效替代方案或补充手段。
基线调查于2011年9月30日至2012年2月17日期间开展，中期数据采集于2013年5月13日至2013年10月17日期间，终线调查计划于2014年进行。
中期数据采集环节包含母亲/监护人与社区托育中心问卷的发放、调查员在社区托育中心的现场观察，以及儿童发展水平测评。