[{"bbox": [83, 105, 1146, 240], "category": "Text", "text": "Office of the Auditor-General should also ensure audit processes are reviewed by an independent agency. National Parliament continues to provide weak oversight during the planning stage of the budget cycle and during the implementation stage of the budget cycle. A Legislative Committee should examine the Executive's Budget Proposal and publish reports with their analysis online. The Public Accounts Committee should examine in-year budget implementation and publish reports with their findings online."}, {"bbox": [83, 263, 1146, 372], "category": "Text", "text": "The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a research organisation and think tank, expressed some concern that the budget document no longer reports on the size of the civil service. This may be due to sensitivity as public expenditure on salaries (including teacher salaries) are high relative to the budget envelope. Monitoring trends in transparency is therefore important, but overall Namibia starts from a relatively strong place."}, {"bbox": [83, 397, 1033, 424], "category": "Text", "text": "In conclusion, the relevant budget documentation has been published and the eligibility criterion is met."}, {"bbox": [72, 452, 611, 486], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION"}, {"bbox": [144, 514, 545, 547], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 3.1 Objectives and Expected Outputs"}, {"bbox": [83, 575, 1146, 630], "category": "Text", "text": "The **Overall Objective** of the NESECD is to contribute to a well-educated and skilled society in Namibia who can play an active role in the social and economic development of the country."}, {"bbox": [83, 653, 1146, 709], "category": "Text", "text": "The Specific Objectives (Outcomes) of this action and the NESECD are, in line with the 11th EDF ESRC and include the following:"}, {"bbox": [83, 733, 1130, 761], "category": "Text", "text": "**Outcome 1:** Increased equitable and inclusive access to ECD and PPE facilities and/or services for girls and boys;"}, {"bbox": [83, 762, 958, 789], "category": "Text", "text": "**Outcome 2:** Increased quality of teaching and learning in ECD and PPE for girls and boys; and"}, {"bbox": [83, 789, 847, 814], "category": "Text", "text": "**Outcome 3:** Improved management and institutional framework for ECD and PPE."}, {"bbox": [83, 841, 470, 868], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**The induced Outputs of this action are:**"}, {"bbox": [89, 894, 1001, 921], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**For Specific Objective 1 (outcome): Increased equitable and inclusive access to ECD and PPE**"}, {"bbox": [83, 946, 509, 970], "category": "Text", "text": "1.1. Increased Enrolment Rate in ECD centres"}, {"bbox": [83, 974, 432, 998], "category": "Text", "text": "1.2. Increased Enrolment Rate in PPE"}, {"bbox": [83, 1000, 980, 1026], "category": "Text", "text": "1.3. Improved access for disabled, improved sanitation and creation of playground in ECD centres"}, {"bbox": [83, 1026, 1048, 1052], "category": "Text", "text": "1.4. Enhanced nutrition for learners at ECD centres, contributing to a reduced incidence of malnutrition¹⁷."}, {"bbox": [83, 1053, 936, 1079], "category": "Text", "text": "(Nutrition: This is also a “demand side” incentive for parents to send their children to ECDs.)"}, {"bbox": [83, 1102, 1146, 1153], "category": "Text", "text": "Specific attention should be paid to the risks of disruption of education and to the continuity of education in areas affected by crisis (droughts, flooding, water scarcity, extreme heat, wildfires but also health pandemics)."}, {"bbox": [83, 1177, 1033, 1206], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**For Specific Objective 2 (outcome): Increased quality of teaching and learning in ECD and PPE¹⁸**"}, {"bbox": [83, 1231, 974, 1257], "category": "Text", "text": "2.1. ECD Educators upskilled to enhance their performance and improve quality of ECD learning"}, {"bbox": [83, 1258, 1146, 1311], "category": "Text", "text": "2.2. Enhanced learning and resource materials for all ECDs including materials for children with disabilities (for private, community, informal ECD centres, etc.)."}, {"bbox": [83, 1310, 762, 1337], "category": "Text", "text": "2.3. Engagement of parents at ECD and PPE levels will be strengthened.¹⁹"}, {"bbox": [72, 1368, 1159, 1418], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ School Feeding and nutrition would be an entry point to a larger coverage of support to children with special needs, including gender and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS)."}, {"bbox": [72, 1417, 1159, 1611], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ In essence this requires adoption of approaches that i) Attract - attract high-quality candidates to the ECE workforce; ii) Prepare - equip ECE educators with appropriate and relevant skills, knowledge, dispositions, and competencies; iii) Support - provide ongoing support and professional development to ECE educators and iv) Retain - by providing conditions that promote job satisfaction. At PPE level this is less of a challenge: remuneration and job satisfaction is high, and it is reported there is no shortage of qualified candidates across the country. Amongst educators motivation is also high in most cases but there is an urgent need to provide the training, support and learning tools to enable educators to deliver higher quality provision. Improved publicly funded remuneration would make a huge difference, but is beyond the scope of this action, although it would form an element of policy dialogue."}, {"bbox": [72, 1610, 682, 1636], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ Extra attention will be given to children with specific protection needs."}, {"bbox": [572, 1661, 658, 1688], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page | 16"}]