Innovative financing mechanisms to accelerate childcare and elder care in South and Southeast Asia

 

Economic growth and demographic trends are driving demand for care. However, state and market mechanisms only cater to this demand to a limited extent and the care burden is mainly borne by households, especially women. Multiple challenges limit the development of markets for care services, including lack of country-specific data on market sizes, willingness to pay for care services, and lack of data on enterprise models, return on investment and costs of regulatory compliance. Further, traditional gender roles and social norms impede the demand for care solutions. The current market landscape of direct childcare services in South Asia highlights an underserved market, especially for low- to middle-income urban households.

The aim of this project is to develop an innovative financing roadmap and toolkit to catalyze private investments for accelerating the emerging childcare and evolving elder care economy in South and Southeast Asia. It will design, structure and operationalize specific innovative finance mechanisms that align private capital with the investment needs of childcare and/or elder care sectors to support market-based solutions that have the potential to alleviate the care burden on women, create jobs and increase incomes.

The project will integrate the demand side analysis and supplement it with assessments of financial viability, financing and complementary needs. It will also include assessment of the impact potential of solutions based on consultations with solution providers, sector experts and field practitioners to shortlist high potential investees. The expected outcome will be care enterprises based on successful models that can be supported by funding partners and can establish the potential for scalability in the medium to long term.

This project is supported under IDRC’s Catalytic Funds - Strategic Initiatives program.