1. Introduction

Early childhood Development (ECD) includes all supports necessary for every child to realize his or her right to survival, protection and care that will ensure optimal development from zero to age eight (Evance, J 2000). ECD is influenced by characteristics of a child, child’s family and the broader surrounding social environment. ECD requires nurturing care and services that encompass 5 domains of nurturing care: Early Learning, Health and WASH, Nutrition, Responsive Caregiving, and Security and Safety. Deprivations in early childhood have a life-long impact. In low- and middle-income countries, extreme poverty means an estimated 250 million children under 5 (43% of all under 5 in these countries) are at risk of suboptimal development and stunted growth. In 76 countries, an estimated 30% – or more – of young children are at risk of poor learning, inadequate education and reduced adult earnings.

In Zanzibar too, young children are at risk of not developing to their full potentials.  The stunting rate is 23.5% and 7% of children are wasted.  Pemba has the highest prevalence at 9% (TDHS 2015-16). The UN Convention of the Right of the Child which states that, a child has the right to develop to the maximum extent possible. The convention recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. Moreover in 2015 Early childhood development was included in sustainable development goal reaffirming its growing status in the global agenda. Tanzania has ratified Regional and International Conventions on the rights of the child including the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child of 1990 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations of 1989 respectively. Zanzibar is also committed to such conventions, as it is part of Tanzania. The Zanzibar Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty known as MKUZA III in-line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize on Pre-primary Education as an important part of Early Childhood Education (ECE).

D-Tree (2019) Zanzibar ECD baseline report show that while a few health and development indicators, such as vaccination coverage and regular play, were high, nearly 10% of children in Zanzibar have some developmental delay. Targeted interventions and health promotion activities across all domains of health, nutrition, and development could improve child well-being and development outcomes in Zanzibar. Issues of child protection and their wellbeing have been considered in different sector policies, though in varying aspects. For example, Education Policy of 2006 has largely engaged children from the age of 4 who start their formal education (i.e. pre-primary education). However, this policy is silent on children less than 4 years.

2. Justification

UNESCO Dar es Salaam is implementing the UN Joint project on ‘Empowering adolescent girls and young women through education in Tanzania’, part of which intends to strengthen the national capacity to develop and implement Life Skills including ECCE/ECD and parental education. This is in line with SDG 4; to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education by 2030. It is within this context that UNESCO is planning to support the Ministry of Labour Empowerment, Elders, Women and Children (MLEEWC) in Zanzibar to develop ECD regulations to guide registration, operationalization and monitoring of Preschools, Day Care Centres and Crèches. The activity will be implemented incollaboration with UNICEF and other ECD stakeholders.

Child development is guided by various legal and regulatory frameworks including but not limited to; Education Policy (2006), Zanzibar Population Policy (2008), Child Protection Policy (2009) and Children’s Act No.6 of 2011. Apart from having in place these regulatory frameworks, key documents including ECD regulations, ECD guidelines, caregiver training manuals, National M&E plan do not exist. Due to this gap there is a limited understanding of the concept of ECD and its impact to optimal development of the child, poor coordination mechanism among ECD stakeholders and hence poor provision of ECD services.

To start with, ECD regulations for the provision of clear definition of different ECD service providers, roles of the Ministry on inspection, registration and monitoring of different ECD service providers will be established. The regulations will also provide elaboration on the roles and responsibilities of different ECD service providers, essential tools for assessment and monitoring of ECD centres, and will set forth legal procedures in case of violation of the regulations.Therefore competent specialized individuals with extensive legal background and or experience on ECD and other cross sectoral areas including education, child protection, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Tanzania are invited to submit technical and financial proposal based on the following TORs.

3. Objective

The main objective of this assignment is to develop early childhood development (ECD) regulations in Zanzibar.

In order to achieve the above objective, the following activities should be implemented;

1. a. Review existing ECD related documents including Zanzibar Children’s Act No.6 of 2011, the Tanzania Mainland ECD Regulations for Day Care Centers, Zanzibar Education Policy (2006), Zanzibar Health policy, Zanzibar Social Protection Policy(2014) and its Implementation plan (2018-2022), Zanzibar Population Policy (2008), and the Zanzibar vision 2020.
2. b. Write the inception report which outlines understanding of the work, proposed outline of the regulations, detailed work plan, budget and data collection tools
3. c. Draft the proposed ECD regulations outline
4. d.  Facilitate a 3 – days workshop to review the proposed outline and drafting the content for the regulations as per the agreed outline. Members of the ECD TWG will be invited
5. e. Conduct field visits for collection of views from stakeholders through in-depth interviews and FGDs
6. f. Write the draft Regulations by taking into considerations inputs from various stakeholders
7. g. Facilitate a 2 – days workshop to discuss the draft regulations with the MLEEWC and ECD TWG
8. h. Finalize the draft regulations by taking into considerations inputs from various stakeholders

4. Outputs/Deliverables

1. a. Inception report  including a detailed work plan and implementation modality
2. b. 1st draft of the ECD Regulations
3. c. Final ECD Regulations in English
4. d. Progress report