The catalyst to unleash women’s economic potential in Africa - Childcare

Female labor force participation is generally high in most African countries but unpaid work, including childcare and managing the home, frequently takes a significant part of their day, leaving them little time to engage in education and paid employment. Many women in the region opt for low-productivity jobs that better accommodate the dual responsibilities of work and childcare. It is common to find women engaging in subsistence agriculture or informal trading, with their children by their side. Access to affordable and quality childcare services could unlock girls’ and women’s economic potential and trigger a change in gender norms.

To discuss this critical issue, we brought together African leaders through the African Union, the World Bank's East Africa Girls’ Empowerment and Resilience Program, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for a regional knowledge exchange - Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment through Childcare: Opportunities for Africa, with support from the Invest in Childcare initiative. This virtual workshop brought together 300 stakeholders from government, the private sector, NGOs, CSOs, and other partners to discuss promising innovations being implemented and tested across the continent.

From the discussions, this is what we heard.

Community-based childcare emerges as a model increasingly taken up in African countries. The World Bank's Gender Innovation Lab reported the impact of a community-based childcare program in low-income rural areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Access to childcare services resulted in significant increases in women’s engagement in commercial agriculture, agricultural productivity, and monthly income. The program also revealed a high demand for childcare in rural areas stemming from lack of support by family members or caregivers. This finding dispels the myth that women can easily rely on family support for childcare.

The Ministry of Education and Human Development of Mozambique described the launch of its first public community-based pre-school program. This service provision model relies on strong multi-stakeholder partnerships: the government handles overall coordination, quality supervision, and infrastructure investment; local organizations manage implementation; and communities are involved in design, monitoring, and co-management. This progressive public policy in Mozambique has led to increased working hours for students’ mothers and better cognitive outcomes for children attending the pre-schools.

Insights from the private sector underscored the substantial economic gains companies, employees, and children reap from investing in family-friendly policies and affordable, quality childcare. NMB Bank in Tanzania showcased the positive impact of their employee-centric policy enhancements, providing concrete suggestions to other private sector representatives interested in stepping up their investment in childcare services. The Nigeria2Equal, an IFC-led multi-stakeholder program in partnership with the Nigerian Exchange, reported that only 5% of Nigeria's private sector employers invest in childcare, despite 67% of working parents reporting that they were more productive at work when they had easier access to childcare.

IFC also highlighted how increased access to capital for childcare entrepreneurs holds huge potential to create new jobs, particularly among women. In the field of innovative solutions, the "mamapreneurs" concept, pioneered by Kidogo, a Kenya-based social enterprise, stands out as a beacon of progress. It promotes job creation and entrepreneurial spirit among vulnerable women while increasing the supply of affordable childcare. To grow, these childcare entrepreneurs need an enabling legal framework. The workshop highlighted a best practice example from Cape Verde’s Ministry of Family and Social Inclusion, which introduced a new policy aimed at increasing subsidies and accrediting both the home-based and center-based providers.

The evidence is clear: investing in childcare is not just a social good; it is a strategic investment in the economic future of a community, as well as an economic catalyst that unleashes girls’ and women’s economic potential, as also delineated in the new World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030. For instance, in line with the strategic objective to expand care services, IFC is set to launch its first program in the Africa region that will boost quality, accessible childcare in Nigeria's private sector.

The journey ahead is still long, but with a combined effort by governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, international organizations, and parents, alongside enhanced legal frameworks and local initiatives that directly impact girls and women, the road to women’s empowerment in Africa can be significantly advanced in the coming years.