The CARE ECD Program is being implemented in two districts in the Inhambane Province. Homoine is a small, densely populated district with 107 475 inhabitants as of 2007. Consumption poverty rates are around 51% with the majority of the population living along the coastline and along transit routes with access to some good farmland relative to the rest of the province.

Funhalouro is a large, sparsely populated district with 44 320 inhabitants as of 2007. The area is prone to food insecurity and drought. With a consumption poverty rate above 69%, Funhalouro is one of the most vulnerable and impoverished areas of Inhambane. Because it is remote and the population dispersed there are few development interventions in Funhalouro.

The ECD program is an implementation science project because we are finding out how best to implement a home-based Early Childhood Development (ECD) intervention in these two different sites. This focus on implementation science means that a large part of the evaluation of the ECD project will include on-going qualitative research on which implementation strategies work best where and why.