Availing affordable and accessible child care in market centers in Kenya

 

In Kenya, the unequal responsibility of unpaid caregiving by women poses a barrier to economic participation in the informal workforce. Women with children under six face intensified caregiving responsibilities, exacerbated by a lack of child-friendly spaces in urban workplaces. An absence of adequate child-care facilities, often informal and lacking infrastructure, trained staff and resources, further hinders women's economic engagement.

A local social impact enterprise focused on creating child-friendly urban environments established a pilot daycare facility in Gikomba in collaboration with the Nairobi County government. This pilot successfully provided quality yet affordable child-care services within the market building. It enabled women to dedicate more time to their businesses, highlighting the potential impact of accessible child-care services.

This project aims to scale this success and advocate for broader policy action. Its goal is to generate local evidence supporting the replication of impactful models and influence policies that mandate or encourage child-care facilities in market centres across different counties. While the Gikomba pilot project serves as a case study, the broader research undertaken in this project will aim to make policy recommendations for accessible and affordable child care beyond this specific model.

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 initiative aimed at scaling tested and locally grounded policy and program innovations to redress gender inequalities in unpaid care work in sub-Saharan Africa.