Supporting childcare continuity in informal settings at a time of COVID-19: community led lessons for interventions

• In Event: Early Childhood Care and Development in East African Communities

Proposal

Background:The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on childcare and childcare provision. Job opportunities in the childcare sector are not secured and minimal social protections if any, exist. Most informal childcare centres were closed because the demand hit a record low.The impact of this closure is that the incomes of childcare centre owners were affected, and women with young children struggled to find childcare services so that they could work. Some of these women resorted to leaving their young children under the care of older siblings (who were away from school because of the pandemic), or neighbours, while others stopped working because of limited childcare options. In order to address this gap, Kidogo Innovations (hereafter referred to as Kidogo) an organization that institutes and supports informal settlements through childcare service providers (mamapreneurs) implemented a COVID-19 response strategy.
Kidogo operates its own best-practice early childhood “centres of excellence, mini-R&D labs to test innovations, and demonstration sites for the community. The centres of excellence operate as model childcare centres serving 50-100 children aged between six months and six years, running for eight to ten hours during the working day. Kidogo provides the basic building blocks for young children to thrive, known as the ‘Kidogo Way’, which includes safe, stimulating environments, trained ECD caregivers, its proprietary play-based curriculum and health, nutrition and protection program. On weekends and during holiday months, Kidogo franchisees and quality improvement centres turn into training centres for the ‘mamapreneurs.’ Additionally, Kidogo empowers women entrepreneurs within the community to professionally run their centres and to track their operational and profit margins. Kidogo adopted a three-pronged strategy targeting children, parents/caregivers and the mamapreneurs.
The intervention: (1) For Children: A Child Package which comprised a Play Pack to enable children to continue with play to foster their development, and a micro-nutrient supplement to prevent deficiencies; (2) For Parents & Caregivers: A Digital Caregiver Platform which covered topics such as school readiness, positive parenting strategies, play-based learning activities, or developmental milestones. This content was delivered through varied media formats (WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS and community radios); (3) For Early Childhood Educators (mamapreneurs): Kidogo worked to support the ‘mamapreneurs’ through monthly Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) that provided a basic minimum income to allow meeting the basic costs for their families and rent for their childcare facilities. We sought to examine the impact of the Kidogo COVID-19 response on childcare provision in the informal settlements.
Conceptual framework: Our work is premised on (Achambault, Colt & Raynaults, 2020) framework that posits that demand (community needs) and supply side factors (interventions) must be considered by decision makers to ensure that their programs or services maximize their impact towards more equity in promoting quality childcare and education.
Methods and analysis: The current paper is important as it provides information on how interventions can be better prepared to respond to disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides community voices on how stakeholders can engage meaningfully to respond to their needs as caregivers. The paper is based on a mixed methods approach. A total of 276 caregiver/child pairs and 99 mamapreneurs were randomly sampled from a population of over 3000 recipients in 9 urban informal settings of Nairobi. They were then invited to participate in a pre-post retrospective study. Using surveys and in-depth interviews, the study documented the childcare experiences of mamapreneurs and caregivers during the pandemic. Quantitative data were described using means (SD) for continuous variables or proportions for categorical variables. Differences in the outcomes of interest were compared between pre- and post-intervention periods and examined using mixed linear models adjusting for potential confounding variables to determine the effect attributable to the Kidogo intervention. Qualitative data were analysed based on predetermined themes and any emerging issues captured.
Results: Quantitative results showed that the Kidogo COVID-19 response intervention had significant positive effects for mamapreneurs as evidenced by the significant difference between the post- and pre-intervention scores (effect size=1.46; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.67). The difference in the parenting competence scale scores between the pre- and post-intervention time points was significant. Caregivers’ knowledge and care giving practices and parenting stress index scores did not show significant differences between the pre- and post-intervention time points (p>0.005). Qualitative results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in serious challenges for childcare for both the parents and mamapreneurs in many different ways, aggravating pre-existing challenges that are mostly related to the extreme poverty in these communities. The interviews revealed that the Kidogo response intervention was useful particularly to the mamapreneurs as it enabled them to continue running their business amidst the crisis. Parents also appreciated the child care support extended to them through the mamapreneurs. However, both groups indicated that they would have preferred that their basic needs and adequate involvement in determining the kind of support extended to them.
Discussion: Kidogo was an emergency response which was devised to respond to the needs that emerged as a result of the COVID-19 and related lock-down. Nevertheless, the concerns raised as well as suggestions put forward provide useful information that should be considered for improvement of such programs for future crises. The supply side Kidogo was acceptable and appropriate while the demand side communities were able to perceive and to reach the intervention. Notably, in times of crises, like the COVID-19, which no one expected, it may not be possible for one organization to cater for all the needs of the population. The critical lesson is that during times of crisis, there should be a joint effort from all partners to respond to the needs of the people and in most cases the community is best placed to identify priority areas. As such, participant involvement is key. This, together with inclusive approaches in the selection of supports and recipients can ensure equitable distribution of the resources to those in need.

Authors

• Ruth Muendo, Food for Education

• Margaret Nampijja, African Population and Health Reserach Center, Nairobi

• Patricia K Kitsao-Wekulo, African Population and Health Research Center

• Nelson Kipkoech Langat, African Population And Health Research Center