SYSTEMS CHANGE: Zaheera Mohamed brings public finance savvy to the fight for ECD systems change

Zaheera Mohamed, the CEO of Ilifa Labantwana and a former National Treasury director, is leveraging her extensive public finance expertise to bring about systemic change in South Africa's early childhood development (ECD) sector. Growing up in a home with older women who taught her valuable life skills like counting change and managing small businesses, Mohamed's upbringing instilled in her a passion for early childhood development (ECD).

Currently, Mohamed is spearheading Ilifa Labantwana, a systems-change organization focused on achieving universal access to quality ECD services for children and women in low-income households. As the nonprofit works closely with government systems, Mohamed describes her role as a "seat of privilege" where she can observe and understand the challenges faced by the government.

In her previous role as the director of public finance for social development in National Treasury, Mohamed gained valuable insights into the two main challenges in ECD funding: limited budgets and the difficulty in ensuring that allocated funds reach vulnerable children and practitioners. During her tenure, Mohamed helped design South Africa's first ring-fenced ECD budget, the ECD Conditional Grant, and advocated for subsidy reform to streamline the process and reduce red tape.

Since the transfer of ECD funding from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education in 2022, Mohamed has noticed a renewed interest in improving the flow of funds to ECD programs while meeting compliance requirements and reducing bureaucracy for centers. While the ECD subsidy remains the primary funding source, Mohamed emphasizes the need to explore other forms of government financing, such as start-up capital and micro-enterprising money, to support the growth and sustainability of ECD programs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mohamed and Ilifa Labantwana conducted a survey that received over 8,000 responses from ECD practitioners, revealing the crisis they faced due to lockdowns. The organization used this evidence to raise R50 million in philanthropic funding to provide relief to affected ECD practitioners. Despite the ongoing challenges, Mohamed remains dedicated to her work, finding immense satisfaction in driving systems change in the ECD sector.