Factors Influencing the Maintenance of an Intervention for Safety, Peace and Health in Early Childhood Development

Abstract

In this report, we focus on the factors that influenced the maintenance of an intervention for safety, peace and health in Early Childhood Development one year post-implementation in an informal settlement in Johannesburg, South Africa. We followed a qualitative methodological framework and collected the data via two semi-structured focus group discussions with recipient practitioners. We analysed the data thematically. The participants reported that the provision of curriculum materials, the relevance of curriculum topics and the availability of regular monitoring and mentoring facilitated the maintenance of the intervention. Insufficient funds to reproduce teaching materials and the English-centric nature of the training materials posed challenges to the maintenance of the intervention. In the study, we call for larger empirical work on factors shaping the maintenance of the intervention in under-resourced contexts. We recommend that maintenance plans be developed alongside prevention interventions, the language of communication be context-appropriate, the capacity development for key social actors be accelerated, fidelity and required resources be regularly monitored, and a consistent agency presence be ensured in intervention communities.