About Umncedi

The Challenge:

Income inequality perpetuates poverty and limits life opportunities. All South African children are born with immense potential for flourishing, however, early experiences will enhance or inhibit their development, affecting future educational outcomes and limiting career opportunities.

The first 1 000 days and early childhood are the periods of greatest brain development. Access to high-quality care and early learning stimulation for young children are among the greatest opportunities for breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty. Despite this:

• 60% of the 42 420 early learning programmes in South Africa are unregistered and the majority are unsubsidised by the government. Many households in low-resource communities are struggling to pay fees to Early Learning Programmes (ELPs) considering that more than half of the country’s population lives in poverty.
• ECD practitioners often receive low levels of remuneration and have limited job security. In addition, they may not have high levels of ECD-related qualifications, which limits programme quality.
  Without subsidies, ELPs struggle to deliver high-quality programmes.

Therefore, without sufficient and predictable income, ELPs cannot provide the quality of care and learning that can break intergenerational cycles of poverty in South Africa.

Umncedi is a flagship project of  the DG Murray Trust that aims to increase ECD programme access to relevant information to support registration and quality programmes.