In a spirited call for action, Real Reform for ECD applauds the Department of Basic Education (DBE) for its commitment to tackling the pressing issue of child nutrition. This initiative is a crucial move in addressing the hunger and malnutrition crisis impacting one in four South African children under five.
Real Reform for ECD is rallying for the implementation of a comprehensive national Early Childhood Development (ECD) nutrition programme. While we’re heartened to see this on the DBE’s agenda, we express concern that the funds earmarked for early nutrition interventions may be absorbed into a massive 10-year, R10 billion per year national school nutrition programme (NSNP) “modernisation” contract. This tender, flagged as “high risk” by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, proposes outsourcing the management of both the NSNP and the new early nutrition programme to a single, centralised entity.
As the Minister scrutinises this tender, which aims to centralise and manage the entire NSNP along with the new ECD nutrition programme, we find ourselves with pressing questions about the DBE’s strategy for enhancing nutrition across approximately 42,000 ECD centres nationwide.
The tender invites bids for a proposed ECD nutrition programme designed to reach “120,000 children over 264 feeding days per year at ECD centres.” While this coverage might suffice for a pilot project, it falls significantly short of addressing the needs of the 1.5 million children from low-income families currently enrolled in ECD programmes. The intended scope, as outlined, is far from adequate as a comprehensive solution.
Moreover, the absence of a pilot phase to test and refine approaches for supporting nutrition at ECD programmes is concerning. With R197 million allocated by the National Treasury for a 2024/25 pilot programme, we urge the DBE to leverage the expertise of all stakeholders to undertake a meaningful evaluation.
In 2023, we launched the Right to Nutrition campaign, advocating for nutrition support for all eligible children—those receiving the Child Support Grant—regardless of ECD programme registration status. Our campaign, underpinned by three in-depth research papers, examined the constitutional right to nutrition, the definition of adequate nutrition, and various implementation models and costs of a national ECD nutrition programme.
Our findings indicated that schools and ECD centres differ in ways that impact programme implementation, suggesting that the approach for schools cannot simply be replicated for ECD settings. A tailored strategy is necessary to ensure that unregistered ECD programmes are also reached, guaranteeing that the most vulnerable children are not overlooked.
We propose that the DBE exclude ECD from the contentious NSNP tender and instead pursue a transparent pilot process, testing two distinct implementation models:
- Direct Transfers: Increase the per child subsidy for registered centres, ensuring all eligible children benefit from improved nutrition support.
- Provincial Procurement and Delivery:
- For provinces where the Provincial Education Department (PED) provides meals directly under the NSNP: Use existing NSNP service providers to supply food to nearby unregistered ECD programmes.
- For provinces where the PED transfers funds directly to schools: Engage new commercial service providers or NGOs to procure and deliver meals to unregistered ECD programmes.
For registered centres, the subsidy should be increased from the current R17 per child per day to R46 per child per day by 2029 to ensure quality nutrition.
We call on the DBE to engage with all stakeholders and publish detailed, transparent plans for piloting and scaling up nutrition support for young children in both registered and unregistered ECD programmes across South Africa.
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