Welcome to

ECD Connect

ECD Connect supports practitioners and organisations to scale and deliver professional, high quality services to young children and caregivers in their communities.

ECD Connect is a licence-free, customisable digital application designed with the support of behavioural scientists and ECD gurus.

It is a crucial tool for the scale-up early childhood development programmes as per the government’s stated goal of achieving universal access by 2030. The platform supports ECD practitioners in navigating some of the more cumbersome aspects of their jobs – as identified by them through user research.

It can be used by independent, stand alone early childhood education practitioners and principals, or by organisations working in the broader ECD sector. These organisations are able to add their own logo, colour scheme and content, all managed through an admin portal.

The code will be published online under a creative commons attribution non-commercial licence.

It is easy to make assumptions about what practitioners require, even with deep knowledge.

However, understanding from the ground up and translating these pain points into a design mitigates the risk of creating a platform that is cast aside and not used by the people it was meant for. ECD Connect has adopted a design-led approach, conducting user research with practitioners across the country, followed by iterative UX testing and refinement throughout the development process.

The key pain points the platform has tried to solve for include:

Quotes from our app users:

The

A

B

C

of ECD Connect

Reduce the administrative and cognitive load that
practitioners experience on a daily basis

Give practitioners meaningful feedback and a way to connect to their community of practice

Equip organisations working in the ECD sector to monitor,
support and respond to their programs

While ECD Connect is primarily a tool to support the early education sector, the modular build means that with further development it will be able to support the broad community of heroes working towards the holistic development of young children across multiple domains:

Read on to see how ECD Connect has been used to support education and health initiatives.

Early education

SmartStart

SmartStart is a social franchise with a bold ambition: to ensure every young child has access to a quality early learning programme in preparation for the opportunities ahead.

Funda App has been developed to support practitioners, principals and coaches.

Multilingual educational resources
Pre-set and customisable daily programmes
Attendance tracker
Child Registration
Child progress assessment tool (3 – 5 years)

Income statements
Virtual document/contract signer
Venue checklist
Calendar to keep track of your schedule

This in-app, Moodle-based learner management system gives users a way to learn something new, refresh old skills, and see their expertise blossom

Connect with your community
Connect with your coach / team lead / mentor (customised version)
Your progress: points and badges

Other early education partners

Maternal and child health care

Grow Great

Grow Great Champions are community healthcare workers who regularly conduct home visits with pregnant women, new mothers and young children to make sure that they’re supported to stay healthy and that any problems are identified early.

CHW Connect has been developed to support community healthcare workers and their team leads. It includes a progressive web app and an admin portal.

Register new clients
Schedule appointments
Conduct home health checks
Refer clients to the clinic
Generate health reports

This in-app, Moodle-based learner management system gives users a way to learn something new, refresh old skills, and see their expertise blossom

Connect with your community
Connect with your coach / team lead / mentor (customised version)
Your progress: points and badges

Want to connect or learn more?

In partnership with

ECD Connect is supported by the Global Innovation Fund and DSI/TIA as part of the South African Government's initiative to promote and support novel South African technologies.