A New Way of Doing Things in South Africa

EOF
1 day ago
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The South Africa ECCE Outcomes Fund will give 115,000 children a strong start in life

Midrand, South Africa - 2 December 2025 - More than 100 government officials, donors, implementing partners and early childhood development (ECD) experts gathered in Midrand yesterday as Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, officially launched the R496 million (USD 29 million) Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Outcomes Fund, the world’s largest outcomes fund dedicated to early learning.

“This is not just a fund,” Minister Gwarube said. “It is a new way of doing things in South Africa – collaborative, accountable, outcomes-driven, and unapologetically focused on the child.”

The launch marks a global milestone in outcomes-based financing and consolidates South Africa’s leadership in using innovative financial mechanisms to accelerate development impact, especially in the foundational years of learning.

A Bold National Initiative Anchored in Long-Term Reform

Led by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), in partnership with the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) and a coalition of South African and global donors, the ECCE Outcomes Fund is designed to transform early learning for the country’s youngest children over the next three years.

The programme supports South Africa’s 2030 Early Childhood Development Strategy and the Bana Pele Blueprint, adopted earlier this year by government, business and civil society.

Through the Fund, South Africa aims to:

● Enable 115,000 more children to access quality early learning

● Build new early learning programmes and strengthen others across 2,000 early learning centres

Speaking at the launch, Minister Gwarube emphasised that early childhood care and education is “the decisive equaliser of opportunity in South Africa.” She noted that the brain development that determines a child’s future ability to learn, connect, and thrive is largely shaped before the age of five.

“If we miss this window,” she warned, “we pay for it many times over through remediation, interventions, and ultimately through lost potential.”

A New Model of Financing for Social Impact

The Fund is the result of several years of co-design between the DBE and EOF, ensuring that every aspect, from the outcomes framework to the financing structure, aligns with national priorities.

Miléna Castellnou, Chief Programmes Officer at EOF, highlighted South Africa’s emergence as a global reference point for innovative financing.

“Outcomes-based financing is a simple idea—paying for improvements in children’s lives, not for activities or inputs,” she said. “South Africa has become a global leader in this work, and today that leadership continues with the world’s largest Outcomes Fund in Early Childhood Care and Education. It represents a radical transformation in how early learning is funded.”

Under this model, government only pays for measured improvements in children’s development. Implementing partners gain the flexibility to innovate, adapt, and drive real change while remaining accountable for impact.

Locally Led Delivery Across Three Provinces

Implementation will be led entirely by South African NGOs, in partnership with provincial governments, ensuring that the Fund is rooted in local expertise and trusted community networks.

From January 2026, the implementing partners (SmartStart, The Early Learning Resource Unit (ELRU), Ntataise, Impande, all supported by Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, and The Unlimited Child) will begin work across KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, supporting existing centres, establishing new programmes and testing innovative approaches. Over the next three years, their work will reach 2,000 early learning programmes.

Global and Local Philanthropy Back a Shared Vision

The Fund is supported by a coalition of international and South African donors, including: The LEGO Foundation, Yellowwoods & This Day, FirstRand, Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation, and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.

These funders have played an instrumental role, both financially and strategically, in enabling the creation of the ECCE Outcomes Fund and positioning it for long-term scale.

“Investing in the early years is one of the smartest and most transformative actions we can take. At the LEGO Foundation we believe that every child, everywhere, has the right to learn, play, grow and thrive,” said Ida Thyregod, International Programme Lead at LEGO Foundation. “We are proud to partner with the Education Outcomes Fund and the Government of South Africa to support the Early Childhood Care & Education Outcomes Fund. By focusing on children in underserved communities, we can ensure that the most vulnerable children will thrive and grow through joyful, meaningful learning".

“This Fund represents the kind of bold, collaborative action South Africa needs to shift early learning at scale,” added Siven Maslamoney, Executive at Yellowwoods. “By aligning philanthropic capital with public finance—under government leadership and through an outcomes-based model—we can help ensure that every rand delivers real improvements for young children. We are proud to support an initiative that strengthens the ECD ecosystem and expands opportunity where it is needed most. This is an important innovation on the path to our shared goal of universal access to quality early learning by 2030.”

A Starting Point for System Transformation

Although the launch represents a major achievement, partners emphasised that it is only the beginning.

The Fund will generate robust evidence over the next three years, informing the design of a future mechanism envisioned to deliver early learning at dramatically greater scale.

“The ECCE Outcomes Fund is not an isolated innovation,” Castellnou noted. “It is a foundational step toward sustainable, scalable and long-term impact for South Africa’s youngest children.”

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