Scaling childcare to promote women’s economic empowerment and child development in Ethiopia

Women in Ethiopia, as in many countries, shoulder a heavy and unequal share of unpaid care work. They typically dedicate more than three times as many hours as men to those responsibilities. Extensive care work often impedes their ability to engage in paid employment. The situation is exacerbated when they have their own children to care for. Limited access to childcare forces older girls to assume unpaid caregiving roles, potentially hindering their education and perpetuating gender inequality.

Informing the rollout of more childcare

The city of Addis Ababa has begun a significant childcare expansion program and plans to establish 1,000 childcare centres by 2026. This project seeks to inform the scaling of the institutional and public childcare facilities envisaged as part of that plan. The goal is to ensure access to quality childcare that meets the needs of low-income mothers and promotes women’s economic empowerment.

Improving childcare and work in the sector

More specifically, the project aims to inform procedures and guidelines that will be created to support the provision of standardized services related to early child development. This will include launching safety and inclusion training for care workers; promoting decent pay for care workers; boosting representation of childcare workers and other low-income women in policy dialogues; and facilitating coordination among stakeholders implementing the scale-up.