As part of the Education Sector Support Project in Mozambique (P125127), an initial credit of 40 million dollars has been provided by the World Bank to the Republic of Mozambique for the purpose of scaling-up Early Childhood Development activities in the country starting from 2012. Education Sector Support Project includes creation of 150 new community-based Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers across five provinces in Mozambique in the first phase and 200 additional centers in the second phase. This impact evaluation concerns the second phase of implementation and aims primarily at assessing the impact of ECD provision in rural area under governmental management using uses clustered random control trial at a community level. Data collection was carried out by the National Statistical Agency of Mozambique, Ministry of Education and the World Bank. 6,171 households were sampled across six participating districts (236 communities) from September to December 2016. Provision of Community-Based ECD services was done through third party providers and included construction of preschool premises and playgrounds, training of local instructors, acquisition of the pedagogical material, and organization of parental activities. Another World Bank-supported intervention in nutrition occurred simultaneously in one of the three provinces covered by the impact evaluation. Some areas in Nampula province received both types of interventions, maximizing likelihood that beneficiary children will be both well-nourished and receive adequate cognitive and overall stimulation in the early years of life. ECD activities target children between 36 and 59 months old, while nutrition activities targeted pregnant women and children aged between 0 and 35 months. The baseline survey was carried out in 236 communities across the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Tete. Communities were allocated randomly to one of the four following groups: Communities with ECD and nutrition intervention Communities with only ECD intervention Communities with only nutrition intervention Control communities with no interventions.
