ECCE Outcomes Funds: Rwanda, Sierra Leone & South Africa

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) is a global initiative transforming how education and skills are financed and delivered. EOF partners with governments, donors, investors, and implementers to make education systems more effective, equitable, and accountable. Through an outcomes partnership model, funding is tied to measurable results, aligning incentives to ensure that resources lead to real improvements in learning and employment outcomes. With generous support from the LEGO Foundation and other philanthropic donors, EOF has launched outcomes funds focused on early childhood care and education (ECCE) in partnership with the governments of Rwanda, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Beyond the direct project aims, EOF ensures knowledge is generated from the projects and shared with the broader ECCE ecosystem.

The ECCE Outcomes Fund in Rwanda, Nkuza Neza (2025-2029), aims to bridge the gap in quality between formal and informal pre-primary sectors by improving the quality of existing, community-based early childhood centres in rural areas serving three- to five-year-olds. There is a special focus on the inclusion of children with disabilities in these centres. Towards this aim, the programme’s three implementers will be held accountable (and financially incentivized through outcomes-based financing) to show progress towards the following outcomes: improvements in the centres’ structural and process quality and improvements in holistic child development outcomes, with a particular incentive for the inclusion of children with disabilities.

The focus of the ECCE Outcomes Fund in Sierra Leone, Salone Pikin 4 Play en Lan (2026-2029), is on expanding access to quality ECCE for three- to five-year-olds through the opening of new, community-based centres in remote, low-income areas with no access to pre-primary education. Two implementers will work to achieve the following predefined outcomes: meeting minimum safety standards for opening centres; increasing access to the centres as measured through attendance; and improving holistic child development outcomes through improving the centres’ structural and process quality.

The ECCE Outcomes Fund in South Africa (2025-2028). has a dual aim to (1) expand access to and (2) improve the quality of early learning programmes (ELPs) and child development outcomes in disadvantaged communities. To achieve these objectives, the programme is segmented into two components: (1) establishing new ELPs, and (2) supporting existing ELPs that serve disadvantaged populations. Five implementers will be incentivized to support centers to reach minimum safety standards, improve process and structural quality, child development outcoms, and support centre registration with the Department of Basic Education.