SmartStart’s home-based early learning model is garnering the attention of international audiences. High-level delegations from Ethiopia and Uganda visited Johannesburg to explore how we empower women in the lowest-income communities to deliver ECD at scale without costly infrastructure.
Ethiopian delegates learn scalable ECD model
During August, Ethiopia’s School Readiness Initiative (ESRI) Executive Director Mr. Menelik Desta Argaw and Dr. Atsede Teklehaimanot, Head of the Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics Unit at Addis Ababa University’s Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, visited SmartStart sites around Johannesburg.
ESRI trains pre-school teachers and parents for holistic child development, alongside health screening, mental health support, and mother empowerment programmes. Over two days, they delved deeply into how our almost 15 000 practitioners transform their homes and community spaces such as churches and community halls into learning hubs that reach over 150 000 children weekly and how this would work in the Ethiopian context.
Ugandan Ministry benchmarks ECD policy practice
In November, Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports Pre-Primary Division, facilitated by ELMA Philanthropies, met with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and spent time examining SmartStart’s policy-practice interface.
Delegates praised the quality of our home-based programmes, discussing government’s dual role as regulator while enabling community assets. SmartStart showed how lowered regulatory barriers turns community women into ECD practitioners serving excluded children.
Both delegations validated SmartStart’s core logic:
- Leveraging existing homes and community spaces, recognising the strength inherent in communities.
- Empowering women to create sustainable ECD enterprises that are changing children’s development and learning outcomes in real time.
- Using digital technology and peer networks to scale affordable early learning in low-income communities across the country.
While Ethiopia seeks civil society adaptation and Uganda explores policy reform, delegations from both countries recognise SmartStart’s potential as a Global South blueprint for universal ECD access.
