Using Innovative Technology To Improve Service Delivery of Informal Childcare Market and Bridging Gender Divide

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Locating the role of technology in family-oriented solutions for early years in fragile contexts

Proposal

Presenter: Karungari Wachira, Child Impact Director at Tiny Totos

For most mothers in Africa, quality high-cost childcare is out of reach. The Kenyan government provides no free daycare for preschool children, impacting the ability of many women to pursue a livelihood. Many unskilled women fill this vacuum by opening daycares in their homes themselves, typically without any formal childcare qualifications, business management skills, or adequate space, or by leaving their children in poor-quality centers where their children fail to meet their developmental milestones. Daycare owners also earn little; and with service poor, mothers' work is constantly disrupted.

Tiny Totos (TTK) is a Kenyan social enterprise with a social franchise model working to ensure all children enjoy access to quality care. TTK provides informal daycares with a practical, user-designed coaching program consisting of in-person childcare and business training complimented by tech-enabled learning support and a phone-based app to enable them to professionalize their businesses, and manage operations, track financials and childcare/customer impacts. The phone-based app is a critical tool, which allows them to work across fragmented and remote communities. The app functions as a business and reference tool for managers and parents alike, and a virtual team field management system for the staff.

TTK also offers credit to owners and parents to acquire hardware such as clean cookstoves, water filters, or smartphones designed to improve standards of care for children at home or at daycares, or engagement of users in the network. TTK has additionally created a network community for daycare businesses and low-income parents through monthly manager meetings, facilitating parent meetings, and organizing guided community conversations through WhatsApp groups, text messages, a radio show, and a free helpline number.

In the roundtable, TTK will discuss how it is utilizing training, technology, network, and investment to reform the informal daycare system in informal settlements in Kenya. They will detail how their training programs and phone-based app are enhancing the quality of care, for children, and empowering local caregivers, especially women, to earn a livelihood. Additionally, TTK will discuss its plans for expanding and replicating this model in other regions, particularly fragile contexts, exploring the challenges and opportunities it foresees in scaling its approach. Lastly, TTK will discuss how access to stable childcare and technology is instrumental in bridging the gender divide, by providing women with enhanced economic opportunities and ensuring better developmental outcomes for their children. They will also highlight their collaborations with local and international partners that have been pivotal in scaling their initiatives and driving systemic change. The discussion will end by covering future innovations and goals, including potential improvements to their digital offerings, modality of delivery etc.

Author

• Karungari Wachira, TINY TOTOS KENYA LIMITED