DataDrive2030 is continuously exploring new tools and approaches to assessment. Our Senior Product Manager, Elizabeth Girdwood, and the team are examining how results from the ELOM 4&5 compare with those from the ECDI 2030 when applied to the same children.
The study explores how the ECDI 2030 can be applied in the South African context, across two language groups and in urban and rural settings. It aims to determine whether results from South Africa’s ELOM 4&5 tools can meaningfully align with the UNICEF ECDI indicator.
THE EVIDENCE GAP: ECDI 2030 IN SOUTH AFRICA
No studies in South Africa have yet used the ECDI2030 at a nationally representative level. As a result, South Africa lacks data that is directly comparable with other countries reporting against SDG indicator 4.2.1: the proportion of children aged 24-59 months who are developmentally On Track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex.
While there is global evidence, there is limited local evidence about whether the ECDI2030 questions work consistently across South Africa’s languages, cultures and socioeconomic contexts. Translation, caregivers’ interpretation of questions, and differences between communities may influence the results.
ELOM 4&5 AND THE ECDI2030:TWO APPROACHES TO MEASURING DEVELOPMENT
The study uses two different approaches to measuring children’s development. Children will be assessed directly using the ELOM 4&5, while their primary caregiver will be interviewed to complete the ECDI 2030 – a set of 20 questions about how the child behaves in everyday situations, and the skills and knowledge they demonstrate.
The teacher will also be interviewed about each child’s social-emotional functioning using the ELOM Social Emotional Functioning tool, a 12-item scale for evaluating children’s social-emotional readiness for school
The ELOM 4&5, used in the Thrive by Five Index, is a direct child assessment for four- and five-year-old children. As a direct assessment, it may offer a more information-rich alternative to the ECDI2030, which relies on caregiver reports. The ECDI2030 gathers caregiver-reported information about children aged 24–59 months.
THE CAREGIVER: DEFINING LABELS APPROPRIATELY
The ECDI2030 is designed to be administered to the child’s mother as the primary respondent. This approach is used internationally to promote consistency and reduce potential variation in responses.
In the South African context,however, there is greater variation in who the primary caregiver may be, and it is not necessarily the child’s mother.
This is an important consideration of the study. The team has used the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004, which defines a caregiver as a person over 16 years, whether related to the child or not, who takes primary responsibility for the daily care needs of the child.
The assessor team was trained to administer the ECDI 2030 caregiver interview both by telephone and in-person, depending on the urban or rural context.
THE TRANSLATION PROCESS: WHY LANGUAGE MATTERS
The research team trained a team of six assessors to conduct fieldwork with 300 children across two provinces and two language groups.
The translation process, using professional, parallel and back-translation procedures, was long and complex. It highlighted differences between agglutinating languages — which can combine several ideas into a single word — and non-agglutinating languages.
This is particularly relevant in IsiXhosa, an agglutinating language, where one word can carry more information than an English word. For example, an item may ask whether a child can speak a five-word sentence, but in an agglutinating language, three words can provide an equivalent comparison.
These distinctions matter in a multilingual context, where language background needs to be considered when assessing a child fairly.
As the team prepares for fieldwork, Elizabeth emphasises that the study is not intended to prioritise one assessment over another. Instead, it reflects DataDrive2030’s commitment to exploring different approaches to assessment.
The team hopes to gain valuable insights into the relevance of these tools in the South African context and their contribution to reporting against global indicators.
