Glossary of Terms

2030 Strategy: The Department of Basic Education’s national strategy for achieving universal access to quality early learning by 2030, with a particular focus on the most excluded children.
Bana Pele: A Sesotho phrase meaning Children First, capturing the guiding principle of putting the needs and rights of children at the centre of national development.
The Blueprint: A shared implementation guide that supports actors across the early learning ecosystem to align strategies, build shared support systems and collectively deliver on the 2030 Strategy.
Community Assets: Tangible resources that exist within communities and programmes that can be expanded, strengthened or adapted to reach more children with quality early learning. These include proven ELP knowledge and practices, local talent, such as youth, elders and caregivers, trusted community spaces that can be repurposed for learning, nearby facilities that support child health and development and open, trusted data and insights that guide evidence-informed decision-making.
Community Support Groups: Collaborative, localised networks that work toward shared goals to support early learning programmes and families. These include Community Collectives, ELP Partner Collectives and Civil Society Collectives, which provide trusted, context-specific support, strengthen local accountability, share learning and mobilise communities around quality early learning.
Community Talent: Local youth, elders and caregivers whose skills, lived experience and cultural knowledge can be activated to strengthen early learning. This includes volunteer, entrepreneurial and workforce potential that expands access, improves quality and creates inclusive livelihood pathways when recognised, supported and connected to ELPs.
Early Childhood Development (ECD): The period from birth until the year before a child enters formal school when foundational brain development occurs. ECD encompasses early learning, health, nutrition, responsive caregiving and psychosocial support, enabled by safe and stimulating environments for children to learn and play.
Early Learning: Structured, developmentally appropriate opportunities for stimulation and learning in the critical years of a child’s life. This includes both formal and informal group-based settings that support children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development.
Early Learning Ecosystem: The diverse, interconnected network of people, systems and institutions that collectively enable early learning. This includes ELP providers, families, NGOs, RTOs, government, funders and community groups.
Early Learning Programmes (ELPs): Programmes attended by young children on a full- or part-time basis that offer structured learning and care. These include centres, playgroups, day mothers, mobile services and toy libraries.
ECCE Outcomes Fund: An outcomes-based financing initiative led by the DBE in partnership with the Education Outcomes Fund and donors. The Fund links funding to independently verified improvements in access, quality and child development outcomes, supporting the expansion and strengthening of ELPS in underserved communities.
Ecosystem: A connected network of organisations, individuals, systems and resources that interact and collaborate to achieve shared goals or create value within a specific domain or context. It extends beyond traditional boundaries to include partners, stakeholders, platforms and external entities that influence or contribute to outcomes. Ecosystems are characterised by interdependence, where participants both give and receive value through their relationships and interactions.
ELP Provider Technology Systems: Digital platforms and tools that support ELP providers by streamlining management, expanding access to learning resources and connecting practitioners to peers, coaches and administrative systems, helping reduce isolation and strengthen daily practice.
Government Networks of Support: National, provincial and local government actors responsible for enabling and resourcing frontline early learning through policy, financing, regulation, systems and coordination.
Government Systems for Support: The systems and enabling conditions that align, coordinate and sustain the early learning ecosystem, including multi-stakeholder orchestration, clear and inclusive policy frameworks, efficient government processes across all levels and strategic coordination of public and private funding.
Mixed-modality Model: A flexible approach to early learning delivery that recognises and supports programmes across multiple settings, including centre-based, home-based, mobile and community-based models, allowing services to adapt to local contexts while meeting shared health, safety and quality standards.
Networks of Care Closest to the Child: The group of actors closest to the child who shape daily early learning, caregiving and development. This includes ELP providers, families and early learning partners such as NGOs, RTOs and community actors who support quality delivery and learning at the frontline.
Network Effects: The amplified impact that emerges when early learning ecosystem actors are purposefully connected and exchange value, enabling shared delivery, faster learning, reduced risk and innovation at a scale no single actor can achieve alone.
Open Bana Pele Network: A network to be established that will build a new pipeline of ELP providers by connecting them to learning, delivery and financing opportunities, stimulating innovation, strengthening livelihoods and supporting sector growth.
Population-based Planning: Planning and delivering services based on the demographics, needs and contexts of specific local populations, rather than applying uniform solutions across all areas.
Shared Support Systems: Foundational public goods and systems, including physical, digital, human and financial, that lower the cost and complexity of change, reduce duplication, enable coordination and support the consistent, high-quality delivery of early learning at scale.
Social Compact for ECD: A structured, co-developed partnership that brings together government, civil society, funders, communities and the private sector around a shared vision for ECD. It aligns roles, resources and solutions to implement the 2030 Strategy, strengthen collaboration and institutionalise participation and shared responsibility so that all children can thrive by five.
Support Systems for Networks of Care: A coordinated set of supports that enable ELP providers to deliver high-quality care at scale. These include the shared narrative, talent development pathways, ELP provider technology systems and the ELP Impact Hub for data and innovation.
Thrive by Five Index: South Africa’s largest national early childhood development survey that determines how many children in ELPs are developmentally on track across early learning, physical growth and social and emotional functioning. The Index tracks outcomes by income, gender and geography, identifies key predictors of healthy development and guides action to improve outcomes for all children.