Evidently, Bhutan provides ECCD services for children from 0 to 8 years of age, but the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of these services require deeper analysis to ensure universal access and quality ECCD programmes. Currently, one in every five children are stunted, and approximately 76 percent of children in Bhutan still do not have access to ECCD centres. Bhutan’s mountainous terrain and scattered population calls for innovative interventions through alternative ECCD models to increase outreach and include children from remote, nomadic, and hard-to-reach areas. Since children with disabilities are among those without access to ECCD services, early intervention programmes and inclusive ECCD services need to be developed to ensure universal access to ECCD from the earliest age.
With the acknowledgement that ECCD services cover children of 0 to 8 years, there is on-going work to develop a National ECCD Multi-Sectoral Strategic Plan to improve multi-sectoral coordination. This evaluation, therefore, comes at an opportune moment to help identify key strategic and systemic shifts to strengthen multi-sectoral ECCD coordination among major stakeholders.
Consequently, the purpose of this evaluation is multi-fold. The evaluation will:
• Focus on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the programme in achieving its desired objectives specified as national priorities in Bhutan’s 10th, 11th, and 12th Five-Year-Plan (FYP), the Bhutan Education Blueprint, the draft National Education Policy, and global priorities as specified in the SDGs;
• Provide a set of actionable recommendations based on credible findings to enhance multi-sectoral coordination and inform the development of the National Multi-Sectoral ECCD Strategic Plan;
• Suggest innovative alternative and sustainable ECCD models for Bhutan; and
• Formulate systemic and strategic recommendations for strengthening ECCD programmes in the upcoming Country Programme and Bhutan’s
Year Published | |
Type | |
Joint | No |
Partner/s | N/A |
Consultant name | |
Agency Focal Point | Dechen Zangmo |
Focal Point Email | dzangmo@unicef.org |
Managed by Independent Evaluation Office | No |
Geographic Scope | Country |
Country/ies |