Integrating Early Childhood Development and Health in Eswatini, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe: A Scale-Up Assessment

Author(s): Cannon, A., Charyeva, Z., Millar, E., Gobin, S., & Morris, L.

Year: 2019

Abstract:

USAID and PEPFAR funded the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Special Initiative, a special initiative for children under five years old affected by the epidemic. It was carried out in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho, and Zimbabwe and integrates early childhood development (ECD) with pediatric HIV treatment or prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

To prepare for potential scale-up, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) asked MEASURE Evaluation to assess the scalability of the ECD-integrated intervention in each country. The scale-up assessment had the following objectives:

1.  Describe the intervention package and key beneficiaries and stakeholders.

2.  Assess the interest and readiness of key stakeholders to scale up OVC integrated interventions.

3.  Identify opportunities for and constraints to successful scale-up of OVC integrated interventions.

4.  Develop recommendations for scale-up of OVC integrated interventions.

Integrating Early Childhood Development and Health in Eswatini, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe: A Scale-Up Assessment  provides the results from MEASURE Evaluation scale-up assessments of the integrated interventions in Eswatini, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe; suggestions and recommendations related to scaling up these interventions in each country; and our lessons learned from working on these assessments. Whether to scale up an intervention is a decision to be made by local governments and donors in each country, based on factors such as intervention impact, cost, complexity, relevance to the country needs and priorities, ease of implementation, availability of funds, and others. This report aims to help stakeholders in each country design and implement the intervention at scale.