1. Stocktaking of Early Childhood Development (ECD)
services in Armenia
November 2018
Financial support for this work was provided by the Government of Japan through the Japan Trust Fund for Scaling Up Nutrition

2. The DATABASE WAS COLLECTED to POTENTIALLY inform referrals to ECD SERVICES from social workers during home visits
Social workers are critical players to promote behavioral change through home visits
They have direct contact with most of the households at risk of malnutrition
It is expected this services’ database will be hosted in by the MLSA and will be regularly updated by the government in the future \

3. Prioritization index based on
4 marzes were selected for the stocktaking: Yerevan, Lori, Ararat and Gegharkunik
Prioritization index based on
Dimension 1: Nutrition status of children under 5 years (stunting, overweight and anemia)
Dimension 2: Percentage of multidimensionally poor
Dimension 3: Availability of services (kindergartens that operate whole year, share of FBP beneficiaries, # of social workers)
Represent urban and rural areas \

4. THE DATABASE COVERS THE UNIVERSE OF NON-PRIVATE SERVICES FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN UNDER 5
Data collection included review of secondary information & direct interviews with key informants and services providers
Services that meet all these criteria:
For children <5 or pregnant women
Children members of a family
Universal or targeted to vulnerable population
Provided by public, NGOs and/or International Donor organizations (doesn’t include private)
Services on health, nutrition, early stimulation/education and protection from stress \

5. The information covers 20 variables to characterize services*
1. Name of service
11. Public sector that regulates the service (health, education, social policy, etc.)
2. Entity responsible for implementation
12. Type of service (medical care, food provision, pre-school, care of children, etc.)
3. Source(s) of information to complete this database
13. Modality in which the service is provided (regular/ non regular, at home, in a center, etc.)
4. Date information was gathered
14. Main goal of service (support good health, promote good parenting, provide child care services, promote healthy nutrition, etc.)
5. Location where service is provided
15. Area were service is provided (specific districts, marzes, rural, urban, nationwide, etc.)
6. Universal or targeted
16. Is the service at full capacity
7. Targeted population among early years (children 0 to 5 and/or pregnant women)
17. Number of beneficiaries by age and socio-economic group
8. Requisites to access the service
18. Profile of staff providing the service
9. Payments associated to service
19. Total budget for this service, last year (In ֏)
10. Frequency a typical beneficiary use this service
20. Entity that funds the service (national/ local government, donor, NGO, etc.) \
*Questionnaire included suggestions from partner specialists at Save the Children, UNICEF and colleagues from different sectors at the World Bank

6. 797 ecd services were identified and characterized\

7. Parental and child protection
Most commonly services integrate interventions that tackle different aspects of early childhood development… though many of them overlap
Services tend to be universal (for all Armenian citizens), only 18% (141) can clearly identify a majority of their beneficiaries as poor or a vulnerable minority
Medical care
include regular med. services + breastfeeding support, provision of ed. materials, child protection from violence (195 services nationwide) and group training and mentoring (30)
Education services
include pre-school food provision, care of children, book/ toy libraries, provision of ed. materials, child protection from violence (344 services nationwide) \
Parental and child protection
include services such as food recipes, demonstrations, breastfeeding support, community (peer to peer) learning, group training and mentoring, provision of ed. material, child protection from violence (12 of 58 parental ed. and child protection services nationwide)

8. Number of beneficiaries per marze
The total number of beneficiaries covered by the database is 234,449*. there are requisites and, in a few cases, fees to pay to access to services
Requisites
Number of beneficiaries per marze
Main requisites are child’s birth certificate (721), child’s health passport (601) and statement of interest from family (407)
Fees
Health  free, however some facilities co-payment for services not included in basic package
Education  school-based & community-based preschools are free, however in some kindergartens there is a fee (in marzes amount depends on village council’s decision and residency in Yerevan)
\50,199 pregnant women and 184, 250 <5 years.
*Not all services have information on number of beneficiaries

9. Lessons learned & Next Steps
Stocktaking took 5 months of work of 1 National Coordinator and 4 data collectors (1 per area) –April to August Political changes occurred during this period
Face to face meetings proved the most effective way to collect detailed information on services. Sometimes it was necessary to interview more than one key informant in the service
Services seem to have difficulties reporting:
Number of beneficiaries by age, refugee and poverty status
Full time or part time staff, and staff that received training to provide ECD interventions
Annual budgets
Next steps:
Analytical exercise of match between demand and supply  using this information to characterize supply and household surveys for characterization of households with children < 5 and/or pregnant women (demand)
Potential use and update by MLSA to inform referrals of social workers during home visits on services promoting early childhood development

10. Thank you!