Making Early Childhood Centres Safer for Every Child in Africa

Every child deserves a safe environment to learn, grow, and thrive. Across Africa, early childhood development (ECD) systems are expanding rapidly to meet demand, yet one critical component remains under-prioritised: safety.

The recent tragedy at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Centre in Kampala on 2nd April 2026, where four toddlers lost their lives, is a painful reminder of what is at stake when safety is not fully integrated into ECD systems. It raises an important question: how can we ensure that all children are protected in the places meant to support their development?  

Safety is the Forgotten Dimension of Early Childhood Development  

The WHO’s Nurturing Care Framework, the global standard for early childhood development launched in 2018 by WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, identifies five essential components every young child needs: good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, early learning opportunities, and safety and security. 

Together, these components form an interdependent system for child development, often described as five pillars that must work in balance. When one pillar is weak or missing, the entire system is compromised.

In practice, however, these components are not equally prioritised. Across Africa, safety and security remain the least developed pillar.

Evidence from Africa reflects this imbalance. A review of studies found that nutrition programmes dominate the research and implementation landscape, while safety and security features in only a single dedicated intervention across all studies. Most programmes fail to address all five components in an integrated way, limiting their overall impact on children’s development.

When safety is neglected, gains in other areas are also put at risk. 

Most ECD Centres Operate with Very Little Oversight  

Part of the challenge is structural. Evidence from Uganda illustrates a pattern repeated across the region. UNICEF's Uganda country assessment states that community-based ECD centres receive very little state funding, are under-equipped, often lack essentials such as clean water and toilets, and are managed by untrained volunteers. According to UNICEF Uganda's 2024 Annual Report, only 9% of children in Uganda are enrolled in licensed and registered ECD centres, meaning the vast majority fall outside any formal oversight system.  

This is not unique to Uganda. Research in Kenya's informal urban settlements found that many childcare centres were not formally registered, partly because providers lacked the required qualifications. In South Africa, analysis of the 2021 ECD Census found that unregistered centres were 4.68 times more likely to have minimal staffing levels, and that funding and administrative capacity were the primary barriers to registration, not unwillingness to register. Across the region, the pattern is consistent: where registration is inaccessible, oversight disappears entirely.

These challenges reflect structural barriers within ECD systems, rather than a lack of commitment from providers. 

When centres are not supported to meet basic standards, safety becomes harder to guarantee. 

What the evidence tells us 

There is currently no robust evidence linking specific physical safety measures, controlled entry points, visitor protocols, and perimeter design to reduce harm in African ECD settings. A 2025 study from Zimbabwe is one of the very few to examine health and safety management specifically in community ECD centres, and it found significant gaps in safety infrastructure, staff training, and monitoring, even where some foundational measures were in place. This tells us that having measures on paper is not enough without the staffing capacity and governance structures to implement them.  

While these challenges are significant, they are not insurmountable. Evidence from across the region shows that centres with trained staff, basic oversight, and support to meet registration requirements can improve both safety and the overall quality of care. This points to strengthening systems, rather than isolated interventions, as a practical way forward. 

Why this matters for everyone 

Safe early childhood environments are not only a matter of child protection; they are foundational to learning, wellbeing, and long-term human capital development. When safety is compromised, the benefits of investments in nutrition, health, and early learning are undermined as well. 

What needs to happen next 

Improving safety in ECD centres is possible, but it requires deliberate and coordinated action across systems. 

• Prioritise enforcement of existing standards. Many countries already have minimum standards for ECD centres. The gap is not policy design, but consistent implementation. Governments, with support from development partners, can fund regular inspections and make results publicly accessible at the district level. 

• Make registration more accessible. As the evidence from Kenya and South Africa shows, the main reason centres remain unregistered is the high administrative and financial barriers faced by community-run and faith-based operators. Governments and partners across the region should design registration support programmes that provide hands-on assistance with documentation, compliance, and accreditation, particularly for centres serving the most disadvantaged children. Expanding registration is the fastest way to bring the majority of ECD centres into any oversight system. 

• Invest in locally grounded solutions. The Zimbabwean study reminds us how little we know about the specific safety interventions that are effective in community ECD settings. Without that evidence, recommendations risk being expensive, imported from high-income contexts, or simply wrong for the environments they are meant to serve. Bilateral donors, foundations, and regional bodies should commission African-led studies to test practical, low-cost safety measures in real-world community ECD settings. 

In several contexts, local governments and community organisations are already piloting approaches to support registration and improve oversight of informal centres. While still limited in scale, these efforts show that progress is possible when systems are designed to support rather than exclude providers. 

The children at Ggaba deserved a system that protected them. So do the millions of young children who attend ECD centres across Africa every day. 

The evidence is clear: improving safety is not a standalone intervention but a systems challenge that can be addressed through stronger oversight, accessible registration, and investment in locally grounded solutions. The opportunity now is to act, deliberately and with urgency, to ensure ECD systems are not only expanding, but truly safe for every child. 

References 

Abuya, B., et al. (2023). Predictors of quality childcare centers in low-income settings: Findings from a cross-sectional study in two Nairobi slums. PMC/PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10644197/ 

Muponda, T., et al. (2025). Assessing Health and Safety Management in Early Childhood Development Centres: Evidence from Mufakose District, Zimbabwe. International Journal of Elementary Education. https://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/article/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20251403.13 

Sello, M.V., De Wet-Billings, N. & Mabetha, K. (2024). Removing barriers to registration for early childhood development centres. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 14(1). https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1519/2975 

Siya, R., et al. (2024). Exploring Early Childhood Development Interventions for Building Human Capital in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review. PMC/PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12264837/ 

Uganda Police Force. (2026, April 2). Four children killed in Ggaba daycare attack, suspect arrested. https://upf.go.ug/four-children-killed-in-ggaba-daycare-attack-suspect-arrested/ 

UNICEF Uganda. (2024). Annual Report 2024. https://open.unicef.org/download-pdf?country-name=Uganda&year=2024 

UNICEF Uganda. Early Childhood Development. Country Assessment. https://www.unicef.org/uganda/what-we-do/early-childhood-development 

World Health Organization, UNICEF & World Bank Group. (2018). Nurturing care for early childhood development: A framework for helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential. Geneva: WHO. https://nurturing-care.org/ncf-for-ecd/