This tab describes analyses that have two main purposes: to help put the process of designing an ECCD project into context and to provide information useful in defining a project's goal and purposes. The diagnosis should also support decisions about the population that will participate in and benefit from the project and about the design and conduct of the project, beginning with immediate outputs and the most appropriate activities for obtaining them. This tab focuses on the general process of diagnosis and on categories of information needed. Elements of the Logical Framework analysis will be recognizable, particularly in the emphasis on arriving at a goal and purpose (or purposes) that will guide program development. At the end the tab gives examples of goals and purposes that might be set for an ECCD project. Specific choices about project design, including beneficiaries, outputs, and activities, are taken up in tab 3.

In developing an ECCD project at least four kinds of analyses must come together: a social analysis, assessing the socioeconomic and political context; an institutional analysis, evaluating institutional presence, capability, and resources; a technical analysis, diagnosing the technical requirements and the ability to meet them; and an economic and financial analysis, assessing economic and financial needs and possibilities.

The social analysis includes a description of the status of children and an analysis of the general conditions influencing their status and development. One of its main purposes is to define the central problem that a project will address, along with the problem's antecedents and effects. Thus it should produce a clear statement of the project goal and purposes. The social analysis is discussed in this tab.

The institutional analysis identifies ECCD actions already being carried out, and by whom, and assesses their effectiveness to determine what resources can be called on in the proposed project. This information will help in deciding how best to organize, execute, and operate a project and in identifying who will do it. It may also identify a need to strengthen institutional capacity. The institutional analysis is discussed in this tab because it may inform a project's goal and purposes.

The technical analysis addresses these questions: Given the problem, the goal, and the purposes, what technical solutions should be sought? What do these solutions imply for the immediate objectives (deliverables) and the activities needed to achieve them? The analysis brings together lessons from experience and scientific information about how a child develops. The analysis of alternatives is carried out in tab 3, and issues that the technical analysis must confront, such as quality and scale, are taken up in tab 4.

The economic and financial analysis helps to decide which alternative is likely to provide the greatest effect at least cost, to determine the financial feasibility of a project at different levels, to specify how funds will be generated to support and sustain the project, and to create a budget. This analysis is discussed in tab 5.

Two main questions are addressed in this tab:

• What process should be followed when analyzing the status of children and families and the context in which a project is to carried out? What basic principles should be followed in organizing and carrying out the analysis, and what are the steps?

• What information should be sought to inform the design of an ECCD project?