As public resources available for investment in the pre-primary sector are limited, a good understanding of current provision, and how government can best work with the non-state sector, is important to determine how to target limited resources most effectively. With a rise in public-private partnerships (PPP) in education in developing countries, the timing is right to explore how the Government of Côte d’Ivoire can leverage the non-state sector more strategically to achieve its objectives in the pre-primary sector. The Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l'Enseignement Technique et de la Formation Professionnelle (MENETFP) requested EPG’s support in 2018 to inform national-level policy discussions by:

(i) improving MENETFP’s knowledge base and understanding of the quality of current pre-primary providers in selected areas of Abidjan and Bouaké and,

(ii) based on this information; develop a PPP pilot to improve pre-primary education access and quality in alignment with current initiatives. 

In collaboration with the MENETFP, EPG designed the study and data collection instruments and contracted Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) to undertake the data collection and analysis. IPA’s analysis is outlined in chapters 2, 3 and 4. Other content may not reflect the views of IPA. The study complements existing research across Côte d’Ivoire by taking a deeper dive to understand provision specifically in the DRENs (Directions Régionales de l’Education Nationale) of Abidjan 3 and Bouaké 2. This choice was driven by (i) the MENETFP’s interest in focusing on the most disadvantaged children in urban and peri-urban areas and; (ii) the availability of different pre-primary providers for comparison purposes.