Serbian Ministry of Education carries out the Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Project financed by the World Bank.

The objective of the Project is to improve access to quality early childhood education and care services for all children aged 3 to 6.5 years, especially those from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The Project would directly benefit children aged 0 to 6.5 years and their families, preschool institutions, local communities (local self-governments, health care centres, social work centres, etc.), government institutions involved in preschool education and care, etc.

Project management, technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation are provided through a separate component.

Project activities are partly done at the national level (preschool teacher training, communication campaign aimed at raising awareness about the benefits of ECEC services, subsidies to local self-governments, etc.), while the Component 1 and grant activities will be done in at least 30 eligible municipalities.

Ranking of municipalities and

More information on the project
design process are available here.

Two units tasked with the Project implementation are established: Project Implementation Unit (PIU), housed in the Ministry of Education, responsible for day-to-day project implementation and overall project coordination; and Central Fiduciary Unit (CFU), housed in the Ministry of Finance, responsible for procurement and financial management of the Project.

In order to increase the implementation efficiency and monitoring of the results achieved, two advisory bodies are formed: Working Group (WG), consisting of technical experts from the MoESTD, including focal points for each of the project’s components, that provides technical expertise and support to the PIU; and Consultative Group (CG), formed by the representatives of the relevant ministries and institutions, that serves as a source of advice, information, knowledge, insight and experience on ECEC policies, programs, related grants and other actions at the local, regional, and national levels.