Supporting parenting care/childcare facilities in markets to reduce unpaid care work for vulnerable businesswomen in Uganda

Ace Policy Research Institute (APRI) conducted a rapid assessment of COVID-19’s socio-economic implications on poor women working in markets in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA). Data for the assessment was gathered through interviews with 250 women business owners who worked in 10 GKMA markets. Women businessowners were chosen in cooperation with the leadership of the various markets. This policy brief summarizes some of the key findings from the rapid assessment conducted in January and February 2022 as well as the policy implications.

As the world builds back after the COVID-19-inspired lockdowns, the gains made in empowering women before the pandemic must be protected. Reducing the burden of Unpaid Care Work (UCW) is particularly important for the effectiveness of women economic empowerment programs. Thus, investments directed towards enabling households better manage their UCW responsibilities including childcare, cooking, fetching water, and looking after the sick and elderly can yield positive macroeconomic growth. Globally, while women were already doing most of the world’s UCW before the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging research suggests that the crisis exacerbated the UCW burden leading to reversals in women’s economic empowerment.

This study is a three-arm, individual-level RCT testing two distinct interventions against a control group over a period of eight months. The RCT aims to determine the primary (labour market and well-being effects including women’s labour force participation and productivity, women’s wellbeing, and child development) and secondary (willingness to pay for childcare services, and women’s agency/locus of control) effects of gaining access to childcare services. The study involves the randomization of eligible women into one of three groups – control and the two treatment groups (Arm 1 and Arm 2). Women in treatment arm 1 were allowed to enroll one child aged eight to 48 months, into a market-based childcare facility located within the market where they work for a period of up to eight months. Women in treatment arm 2 were provided with a bursary to enroll one child within the same age range into a childcare facility of their choice up to the end of the 2023 school calendar (community-based childcare). Control arm participants did not receive any financial benefits beyond the token of appreciation given to all respondents during the baseline survey.