LODA, Imbuto Foundation and LG form partnership to scale up VUP Expanded Public Works Home Based ECDs
Today on 30th January 2020 at LEMIGO Hotel there was held a meeting gathering the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), Imbuto Foundation and Districts to strategize for scaling up VUP Expanded Public Works (ePW) Home Based Early Childhood Development (ECD) services. This meeting comes in line with the partnership contract signed between LODA and Imbuto Foundation on 25th November 2019 with the aim of providing technical support to VUP ePW Home Based ECDs.
The objectives of this event are twofold: (a) to raise awareness of participants for collaboration in program implementation; and (b) to provide inputs and validate the inception report proposing ways to respond to the identified capacity gaps in home based ECDs under VUP Expanded Works.
Participants to this technical meeting include various social protection actors from LODA, Imbuto Foundation, District Vices Mayors in charge of Social Affairs, District Executive Secretaries, District Directors in charge of Social Development, plus around 30 national and international NGOs and institutions involved in ECD program implementation activities.
Through the aforementioned partnership, Imbuto Foundation will provide technical support to VUP Home Based ECDs by building capacities of caregivers, programme staff and stakeholders at local government level on this front. In concrete terms, this support will focus on the following objectives:
As per the partnership contract, the scale up and capacity building phase will last 20 months, starting from November 2019 and ending in June 2021. This phase will cover 5000 Home Based ECDs in 300 sectors across 30 Districts of Rwanda where VUP ePW operate.
In the framework of this joint initiative, Imbuto Foundation made a rapid assessment on 54 of the 62 sites of pilot phase of ECD programme (under VUP ePW flagship) in order to identify the existing capacity gaps for caregivers, ePW Home Based ECDs Project staff and Local Government stakeholders involved in the delivery and monitoring of integrated ECD services. The subsequent inception report was also validated by participants to the today meeting.
In her opening remarks, Mrs. NYINAWAGAGA Claudine, Director General of LODA, said that “Being one of the forefront implementers of Social Protection programmes in Rwanda, LODA wished to give its contribution to the national commitment of investing into Early Childhood Development for a prosperous nation through the expansion of VUP ePW, and therefore sought to learn from the seven year experience of Imbuto Foundation in this field”.
While addressing participants, Mrs. UMUTONI Sandrine, Director General of Imbuto Foundation, stated that “Over the years, the effective implemention of the ECD programme has required a multi-faced and multi-partner approach. Therefore, scaling it up across the country will require recommitment and continued investment from us all, if we are to reap the rewards of this programme”. “Imbuto Foundation is committed to work hand in hand with LODA and other stakeholders so as to enable our country effectively fight against malnutrition and stunting amongst children under 5 years for a better cognitive and physical growth”, she added on.
In Rwanda, malnutrition and stunting have been and are still prevailing issues. Statistically back to 2015, 38% of children below 5 years old were stunted. This has made the Government of Rwanda establish a particular programme known as “National Early Childhood Development Programme” (NECDP) with a specific mandate to “fast-track the implementation of the Early Childhood Development Program with emphasis on fighting malnutrition”. To successfully curb these issues, it requires joint efforts by different stakeholders to accelerate stunting reduction from 38% to 19% by 2024, which justifies the existence of this joint initiative by LODA and Imbuto Foundation.