September 5, 2017 – The Brookings Institute has developed an piloted a Standardized ECD Costing Tool (SECT) in five countries. This tool was intended to be made available for use by funders, governments, program implementers, and researchers to improve access to and the quality of ECD programs. The tool was tested with variations by region, intervention type, and the capacity of implementing agencies and partners to gather data and conduct the costing exercise. Their report reviews previous efforts to cost ECD, describes the gaps that this tool fills, explains the utility and components of the tool, summarizes the lessons and results of five pilot costing exercises in Bangladesh, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, and Mozambique, and discusses next steps to roll out the tool to users across the globe.
See also this blog by Brookings Institute about the SECT and its value.