Enhancing and scaling up impacts of a social-franchise model of daycare centres to reduce effects of unpaid care work

 

In Nairobi's informal settlements, women shoulder a heavy load of unpaid care work, spending approximately five hours per day on primary care tasks. A key part of this is the care for young children. The absence of extended family support systems and limited access to formal daycare centers force low-income mothers to rely on neighbours or informal, often substandard, childcare facilities. This situation underscores the urgent need for affordable and quality childcare solutions for mothers with small children in informal settlements to reduce and redistribute the care responsibility, freeing time for the advancement of their educational or economic aspirations and self-care.

Launched in 2014, the Tiny Totos Care Model (TTCM) has been helping transform existing community daycares into self-sustaining businesses that offer high-quality, affordable childcare services in Nairobi's informal settlements. The model has shown promise, with positive impacts for care workers and for poor working mothers living in informal settlements. This project aims to deepen the positive impacts by enhancing the TTCM's approach with greater attention to enhancing its efficiency, reach and cost-effectiveness. The goal is to increase the TTCM’s positive impacts on women and girls who access childcare services through affiliated daycares by generating evidence and learning on how best to deepen and sustain positive impacts.

This project is supported under the Scaling Care Innovations in Africa partnership co-funded by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC. Scaling Care Innovations is a five-year partnership aimed at scaling tested and locally grounded policy and program innovations to redress gender inequalities in unpaid care work in Sub-Saharan Africa.