Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity in Malawi

The development objective of the Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity Project for Malawi is to improve coverage and utilization of early childhood development services with focus on nutrition, stimulation and early learning from conception to 59 months in selected districts of Malawi.It has four components. First component, Community-based nutrition and early stimulation interventions to consolidate and scale up the delivery of a comprehensive set of high impact and cost-effective nutrition and early stimulation interventions; Second component, Center-based early learning, nutrition and health interventions to improve the coverage and quality of preschool education and reproductive, maternal, and adolescent health services; Third component, Multisectoral coordination, capacity and system strengthening is to support capacity-building activities from national to district levels to strengthen management, coordination and implementation of nutrition, and early stimulation and early learning interventions; enhance systems and service delivery at all levels; and improve citizen engagement; Fourth component, Contingent emergency response component will allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a future natural or man-made disaster or crisis that has caused or is likely to imminently cause a major adverse economic and/or social impact during the life ofthe project.