This year marks a significant milestone as we celebrate 10 years of empowering innovation, driving meaningful change, and making a lasting impact in Early Childhood Development (ECD) through our investments. Over the past decade, we’ve navigated through challenges, embraced achievements, and remained committed to making a meaningful difference by investing early to build a strong foundation for the future success of our country’s youngest citizens. This anniversary is not just a reflection of our accomplishments, but also a celebration of the partnerships we’ve formed, the lessons we’ve learnt, and the passion that drives us forward.
Let’s reflect on some of the impactful moments that have made this journey unforgettable.
From Vision to Impact: The Journey Unfolds
In 2014, a dynamic partnership came together to form an organisation with a unique purpose: to ignite innovation for early childhood development and enable young children in low resourced communities of South Africa to thrive. Innovation Edge was founded through a partnership between the Omidyar Network, the UBS Optimus Foundation, the DG Murray Trust, the FirstRand Foundation and the ELMA Foundation. This partnership set the stage for groundbreaking solutions that would transform how young children learn, grow, and thrive.
In the first year, our focus was on idea generation and developing an iterative approach to testing concepts. By our third year, we had made 22 investments into ECD solutions and six successful proof of concepts, four of which began transitioning to implementation and scale. As of 2024, we have made a total of 45 investments and 10 reinvestments into ECD solutions to improve health, learning and safety outcomes in children.
South Africa’s First Population Level Pre-School Child Assessment Tool: ELOM
Along with Ilifa Labantwana, we commissioned the development of ELOM in 2015.
The Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM) is a set of population-based child assessment tools designed to determine whether children are developmentally on track for their age. It has been developed and validated in South Africa for children aged 4 – 6 years old and is currently available in nine official South African languages. This locally developed and standardised instrument is designed to assess early learning outcomes for young children and provides an indication of quality of early learning environment in the home and in learning centres. It is also aligned with the South African Early Learning Curriculum.
When we funded ELOM in 2015, we required the tool to be able to fairly assess children from across the cultural and socio-economic spectrum as well as be inexpensive and accessible. Over a two-year period, the project underwent extensive research and consultations with several local and international experts as well as field testing on a sample of 1 500 South African children between 50-69 months of age.
Through our investment into ELOM in 2015, stakeholders including early learning programme staff, donors, public sector officials, researchers, programme developers, and monitoring and evaluation specialists, who needed valid evidence of programme effectiveness were able to use ELOM.
ELOM has expanded its tools significantly since 2015, continually evolving to meet the needs of early childhood development.
Think Future: Bringing Change-Makers Together
Our journey has included many valuable lessons, but perhaps most important of all is the profound importance of diversity in driving innovation. As an innovation catalyst, we bring together individuals with varied interests and expertise to foster the development of new ideas in ECD. We also bridge gaps between diverse concepts across different sectors in SA. This was the motivation behind the inaugural Think Future event, which took place in Cape Town in November 2017 followed by the second one in 2019.
Think Future is an event that brought change-makers from diverse industries and geographies to inspire collaboration and foster connections aimed at building strong early life foundations for children.
The big idea was to spark action that results in children from all communities having the types of experiences that help them realise their full potential in the world. Quite purposefully, 40% of attendees were from outside of the traditional early childhood care and education sector. Those newer to the topic described the experience as ‘being hit by the early childhood development bombshell’.
While there were many exciting take-aways from the event, two overarching themes emerged: Thinking Big(ger) and Thinking Simple(r). The Think Future events demonstrated that when a diverse group of individuals come together to forge unique connections with one another and share ideas, remarkable outcomes can be achieved.
Watch the highlights film below to get a taste of the Think Future experience:
Navigating The Pandemic: The Covid-19 Early Childhood Rapid Response Fund
The nation-wide lockdown that was announced on 23 March 2020 significantly impacted the early childhood development sector.
Many ECD centres closed temporarily, limiting access to early education, care, and nutrition for young children and their families. With in-person programmes suspended, children missed critical developmental milestones and early learning opportunities, leading to potential long-term educational gaps. Families faced heightened economic stress, which affected their ability to provide resources and support for their children’s development, leading to increased vulnerability among young children.
The pandemic exacerbated existing challenges in the ECD sector and highlighted the need for robust support systems to ensure the well-being and development of young children. With children no longer able to access safe spaces and grassroots organisations affected by the strict restrictions and unable to delivery services, there was a growing need to deploy extraordinary measures to safeguard children and their caregivers.
During the height of the national lockdown in 2020, we launched the Rapid Response Fund to support organisations undertaking extraordinary measures, because of the pandemic. The fund was specifically targeted at supporting organisations working to support child protection efforts in one or more of South Africa’s impoverished communities.
We were able to support six NGOs through funding and ultimately support more than 20 000 children across South Africa.
Watch the video below to hear some of the stories shared by the organisations we supported during this period.
The Largest Survey of Preschool Child Outcomes: Thrive by Five
In 2021 we, together with the First National Bank and the Department of Basic Education, initiated the largest survey of preschool child outcomes – The Thrive by Five Index (Thrive by Five). For a long time, South Africa did not have a child outcomes assessment tool that was reliable, valid, affordable, culturally sensitive, and appropriate for various languages, while also being feasible for large-scale implementation in a developing country. Thrive by Five was developed to address this need.
Thrive by Five monitors trends of whether 4 – to – 5-year-old children attending early learning programmes are on track for their age in key areas of development, namely: Early Learning, Physical Growth, and Social Emotional Functioning. By providing population-level data on children aged 50 to 59 months, we can identify strengths and areas for improvement in ECD. It serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, educators, and communities to enhance support for young children’s growth and ensure better long-term outcomes.
Thrive by Five is nationally recognised as the leading assessment tool for children, providing invaluable insights into early childhood development. Widely trusted and utilised by the Department of Basic Education, it empowers educators and policymakers, fostering a solid foundation for lifelong learning and success.
Krutham Awards: IE’s Recognition as an Impact Investor
One of our most inspiring moments was being honoured with a second place for the Catalytic Investor of the Year Award at the Africa Impact Investment Award event in August 2023. As an impact-first investor, this prestigious recognition highlights the important work we do to catalyse funding for innovations that improve the early experiences of children in South Africa.
This recognition further affirms our role in driving sustainable, impactful change in ECD and presents an opportunity to amplify our efforts, attract attention and potential collaborations that could accelerate positive outcomes in early childhood development.
Looking Ahead
Innovation Edge has transformed from what started out as a shared vision, into an impact-first investor, fuelled by our passion for improving ECD outcomes and making a lasting impact. As we look ahead, we remain committed to our mission of fostering innovation and driving positive change in early childhood development. The journey we’ve embarked on over the past decade has laid a strong foundation, but there is still much work to be done. Together with our partners, stakeholders, we will continue to explore new opportunities, address emerging challenges, and ensure that every child has the chance to thrive.
As we reflect on our 10-year journey in ECD, we are filled with gratitude for the countless partnerships, insights, and achievements that have shaped our path. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the transformative power of investing in our youngest citizens, and we are inspired by the progress we’ve made together.
While the challenges are still significant, we are excited about the future and the possibilities it holds and remain dedicated to creating a brighter future for children through the work that we do.
Thank you to our founding partners, collaborative partners, visionaries, entrepreneurs and the support of the community we have built over the years. Here’s to the next chapter in our mission to empower every child to thrive!
Author: Lerato Kau – Communications Analyst at Innovation Edge