Reducing women’s care burden and improving their economic wellbeing through establishment of community-based childcare centers

• In Event: Parental engagment in ECD

Proposal

Background
The burden of care falls disproportionately on women and girls, who face significant time constraints, reduced opportunities for education, paid work, and limited access to social protection. In Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, women spend more than 70% of the total hours on unpaid care work (ILO, 2019) with 50% of young girls, in some parts of Ethiopia, providing unpaid care work daily (ODI, 2016); and in some of these countries unpaid care is estimated to contribute to as much as 35% of GDP (UN Women, n.d.), indicating the scale of the problem. For those households who have young children (especially less than 5 years of age), childcare takes majority of women’s time, and lack of childcare services affects women’s employment and economic opportunities; it also limits productivity, and the type of employment women can engage in, preventing them from taking more stable and lucrative opportunities (Devercelli, & Beaton-Day, 2020). Childcare service provision for children under the age of 4, even in urban and peri-urban locations of Ethiopia with far better resources, is still a concern and the sector remains the most neglected (Belay, & Hawaz, 2020); and access (and quality) to childcare service provision is almost non-existent in most of these locations (Tefera, & Messay, 2023).

Objective
The aim of this research and implementation project is to assess whether subsidized and enhanced quality community-based childcare services can improve women’s economic wellbeing and empowerment while promoting Early Childhood Development (ECD). The project is part of the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Methods – Project Implementation
The project was being implemented from 2021 - 2024 in urban and peri-urban settings of Ethiopia by a consortium of organizations (ChildFund Ethiopia, Children Believe Fund, Tesfa Berhan Child and Family Development, and the Addis Ababa University). Sixteen community based childcare centers were established, each center enrolled around 20 children. The childcare centers are managed and run by a community facilitator, selected from the community, and mothers also support the community facilitator, as supporting childcare worker staff, on a rotational basis while the remaining mothers leave their children at the center and are engaged in income generating activities. The community facilitator and mothers receive trainings on holistic ECD and managing the day-to-day activities of the childcare centers. Field coordinators conduct regular supportive supervision visits at each childcare center and provide coaching to community facilitators to ascertain the quality of the childcare centers. ECD committees were established, comprising of local government sectors from education, health, women and social affairs, and district administration which help in providing the necessary support and linkages with the public sector. The 20 mothers from each of the childcare centers were organized into Self-Help Groups (SHGs), informal associations of women aimed to overcome their social, economic, and personal challenges. Members of a SHG conduct weekly meetings at the childcare center to discuss their social/personal issues, make weekly savings, and take/repay loans utilized to engage in various income generating activities. Regular technical support for the SHGs are also provided by the implementing partners.

Methods – Research
A quasi-experimental design where control group (non-beneficiaries) were identified based on the similarity of baseline (pre-intervention) characteristics with the intervention group (beneficiaries). Quantitative data were collected from mother-child pairs, both at baseline and endline using standard and validated questionnaires. Descriptive statistics are computed among the intervention and control groups by key indicators, and the baseline balance was assessed using chi-square test (for categorical variable) and Wilcoxon signed rank test (for quantitative skewed variables). A difference-in-differences (DID) analysis using propensity score matching was performed to estimate the contribution of the project’s interventions on the outcomes of interest. All the analysis are adjusted for clusters (in our case, kebeles – the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia). A qualitative study was also conducted to explore barriers and enablers related to childcare practices, the benefits of the childcare centers, and strategies to ensure sustainability, and substantiate the quantitative findings.

Results
The endline findings showcased that the project interventions significantly contributed to increased employment and earnings of SHG members/mothers; reduction of the incidence of depression among women and improved their overall health; improved food security and household wealth; and increased involvement of fathers in childcare responsibilities. The project interventions have not made significant contributions to improving women’s household decision making; intimate partner violence; child nutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight); and although progress has been made in increasing ECD outcomes of communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social, as measured by the third edition of Age and Stage Questionnaire (ASQ-3), these changes were not significant.

Recommendations
Ensuring sustainability through Network of SHGs: Establishing linkages with concerned stakeholders is very important to ensure sustainability of interventions. Particularly, networks of SHGs should be established and strengthened through capacity building, financial inclusions, and integrating their activities with government development initiatives. This will ensure not only sustainability but also community ownership of childcare centers, plugging the ECD sector within the public sphere.
Focused communication interventions on male partners/fathers: The parenting sessions and other communication interventions, which are part of the social and behavioral change strategy, were mostly attended by the mothers. It has been noted that targeted interventions focused on fathers/male partners is also crucial particularly to address outcomes such as intimate partner violence, and household decision making of mothers.
Policy linkage of women economic empowerment and early childhood development: The key policy related objective of this project was to generate evidence towards the revision of policies, particularly Ethiopia’s National ECD policy framework, to incorporate women economic empowerment. The evidence has strongly shown significant outcomes of linking women economic empowerment with ECD, especially in the areas of mother’s income and livelihood, and increased access to childcare service provision. Thus, ECD policy frameworks need to incorporate women economic empowerment mechanisms to bring about such results.

Authors

• Natan Tilahun Mulat, ChildFund Ethiopia

• Tefera Delbiso, Addis Ababa University