Children require interconnected and diverse support such as quality; nurturing care; good health; adequate nutrition; safety and security; early learning opportunities; and responsive caregiving to reach their full potential.

President Cyril Ramaphosa convened the inaugural meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Early Childhood Development (ECD) on 23 April 2024, to establish the IMC. This marked a pivotal moment in Government’s commitment to providing comprehensive and inclusive ECD services to all South African children. During the meeting, several key points and priorities of the IMC for the next five years were discussed and agreed upon.

The members of the IMC include the Ministers of Basic Education; Health; Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs; Social Development; Higher Education and Training; Employment and Labour; Sport, Arts and Culture; Correctional Services; Home Affairs, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation; Police and Finance. The IMC agreed on a collaborative approach to the delivery of ECD services, with the Departments represented at the IMC working together to ensure universal access to comprehensive, quality ECD services, with a focus on prioritising the most vulnerable children.

The DBE will be convening future IMC meetings bi-annually and is committed to working collaboratively with relevant departments and stakeholders. The objectives of the first Inter-Ministerial Committee were to establish the IMC through an adopted ToR; clarify the mandates of each department for ECD delivery; and to agree on the proposed priority areas for ECD programmes, as well as to agree on the development and reporting against a joint outcome-based monitoring and evaluation framework for ECD to track progress against the proposed priority areas.

During the meeting, the President acknowledged that ECD is the real revolution for our country’s long-term development. He emphasized that investing in our children's early years is laying the foundation for a brighter and more prosperous future for our nation.

Dr Janeli Kotze, Acting Director for ECD said that, “the DBE will be working in collaboration with various departments, and leading the social compact to formalise public-private partnerships and to establish an ECD specific legislative and regulatory framework to coordinate the delivery of integrated ECD programmes. The mandates and core responsibilities of the DBE are, amongst others, to work with Provincial Education Departments and social partners to achieve universal access to integrated ECD programmes and to improve the quality of ECD programmes. In addition, the DBE will be implementing the new Service Delivery Model and 2030 Strategy for ECD programmes, along with the curriculum through the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). Other responsibilities include the quality assurance of ECD programmes; the facilitation of the training of ECD practitioners; resourcing of ECD programmes; and the early screening and identification for children with special needs”.