The two-day Limpopo Provincial ECD Multi-Stakeholder Indaba, organised in partnership with the Limpopo Department of Education and Save the Children South Africa, brought together government departments, municipalities, practitioners, traditional leaders, communities, parents, civil society, donors and private-sector partners.

The Indaba focused on a practical question: what will it take to reach more children in Limpopo with quality early learning, particularly in rural and underserved communities?

Participants identified priorities including stronger coordination between government and ECD providers, improved infrastructure and essential services, better support for practitioners, more responsive community participation, and better alignment of resources around children’s learning, safety and wellbeing.

A central message throughout the discussions was that no single organisation or department can deliver universal access to quality early learning alone. Progress will depend on partners working together with clear roles, shared priorities and a commitment to turning plans into action.

The conversations will inform the development of a Provincial ECD Action Plan, setting out commitments, responsibilities, timelines and measures of progress.

For SmartStart, the Indaba was an opportunity to contribute our experience of working with practitioners, partners and communities, while listening to the priorities shaping ECD in Limpopo. It also reinforced the value of bringing different perspectives into the same room: practitioners bring insight from daily delivery, communities share local realities, government outlines system priorities, and partners explore how they can contribute to a more coordinated response.

The work now is to build on this momentum by strengthening relationships, supporting implementation and turning shared ambition into meaningful progress for children and families across Limpopo.

Learn more about SmartStart’s work with partners and communities to expand quality early learning.

SmartStart brought together its national network and the wider early childhood development (ECD) ecosystem for its inaugural Constellations of Change gathering in Johannesburg. The two-day event explored how stronger partnerships can help make quality early learning accessible to every child by 2030.

The gathering brought together implementing partners, programme leads, club coaches, call-centre agents, frontline and hub staff, government representatives, funders, researchers, technology providers and other stakeholders. It reflected SmartStart’s role as an early learning delivery platform that connects people, organisations and resources to strengthen access, quality and sustainability across the sector.

The first day focused on SmartStart’s network and its new five-year strategy. Partner leaders, their teams and SmartStart staff reflected on SmartStart’s evolving role – from delivering an early learning programme to acting as a catalyst for greater coordination, innovation and systems change.

Participants also celebrated the network’s contribution to SmartStart’s recognition as a 2026 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Innovation. Four partner organisations were recognised for agency, know-how and collaboration:

• Early Learning Resources Unit (ELRU) received the Agency Award for taking initiative to expand access in challenging contexts.
• Training and Resources for Early Education (TREE) received the Know How Award for sharing practical expertise and tools.
• Khululeka and Siyakholwa jointly received the Collaboration Award for establishing a regional hub and working more closely together to help close the early learning access gap in the Eastern Cape.

The second day opened the conversation to the wider ECD system. Government leaders, funders, researchers, technology providers and implementing organisations considered the conditions needed to expand access and improve the quality and sustainability of early learning.

Panel discussions explored the links between access, nutrition, quality, the ECD workforce, financing, evidence-building and partnerships. They highlighted that universal access to quality early learning cannot be achieved by one organisation alone: nutrition supports children’s ability to learn; quality depends on a skilled and supported workforce; and sustaining that workforce requires appropriate financing, informed by evidence and strengthened through partnerships.

The gathering concluded with a shared commitment to strengthen collaboration across the ECD ecosystem and include more voices in the work ahead. The next phase will focus on translating conversations into action through stronger partnerships with government, more coordinated investment, shared evidence and opportunities for organisations across the sector to contribute.

Explore how SmartStart works with implementing partners to strengthen early learning delivery across South Africa.

What does it take to ensure that every child in South Africa has access to quality early learning?

The answer cannot be found in one programme, organisation, or solution. It lies in the connections between the many people and parts of the early childhood development ecosystem – from families and practitioners to government, funders, researchers, technology providers, and community organisations.

This is the thinking behind Constellations of Change, a two-day gathering hosted by SmartStart on 11 and 12 August 2026 at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Johannesburg.

SmartStart’s work is rooted in a simple belief: every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive.

To reach every child, however, requires more than expanding individual programmes. It requires a stronger and more connected system – one where organisations share knowledge, build on one another’s strengths, and work towards a common purpose.

Constellations of Change will bring the SmartStart network together to reflect on the organisation’s journey, look ahead to its new five-year strategy, and explore SmartStart’s evolving role as a system catalyst.

The gathering will also create space to recognise the people and partnerships that make the work possible every day.

The first day will focus on the SmartStart network, bringing together implementing partners, programme leads, club coaches, frontline teams, contact-centre agents, and hub staff.

These are the people who support early learning delivery across communities. They recruit, train, coach, coordinate, problem-solve, and help create the conditions in which practitioners can support children.

The day will be an opportunity to:

• Reflect on what the network has learned.
• Connect around SmartStart’s five-year strategy.
• Explore the shift from programme implementer to system catalyst.
• Share ideas and experiences from across the network.
• Celebrate the work of partners and teams.

The day will conclude with a gala dinner celebrating the network’s contribution to SmartStart’s recognition as a 2026 Skoll Award for Social Innovation recipient.

The second day will bring together the wider ECD ecosystem.

Government leaders, funders, researchers, technology providers, implementing organisations, and other partners will be invited to join the conversation about what it will take to expand access to quality early learning across South Africa.

The programme will explore the connections between:

• Access
• Nutrition
• Quality
• The ECD workforce
• Financing
• Data and evidence-building
• Partnerships

These areas cannot be addressed in isolation. Access to early learning is connected to children’s health and nutrition. Quality depends on a skilled, supported, and sustainable workforce. Supporting that workforce requires appropriate financing, guided by evidence and strengthened through partnerships.

The event will ask how the ecosystem can move from working alongside one another to working more intentionally together.

A constellation is made up of individual points. Each point matters, but the pattern becomes visible only when the points are connected. The same is true of early learning. Every practitioner, family, organisation, funder, researcher, policymaker, and community leader has a role to play. Their work may look different, but it contributes to a shared system.

The question is not only what each organisation can do on its own. It is also:

• Where can we work together?
• How can we share what we are learning?
• How can we reduce duplication?
• How can we strengthen the parts of the system that support everyone?
• How can we turn evidence into action?
• How can we ensure that the voices of communities and practitioners shape the future of ECD?

Constellations of Change is not intended to be a conversation for its own sake but an opportunity to build relationships, surface important questions, and identify practical ways to strengthen the early learning ecosystem.

SmartStart’s next chapter will depend on its ability to work with others – not only as a delivery platform, but as a partner in building a more connected, coordinated, and effective system. The work ahead is complex. But the opportunity is significant.

When the different parts of the ecosystem connect, they can create something stronger than any one organisation could create alone: a future in which every child has access to quality early learning. That is the constellation we are working to build.