September 2022 HOUSEHOLD DEMAND AND COMMUNITY PERCEPTIONS OF ABOUT THIS STUDY COMMUNITY-BASED CHILDCARE The World Bank’s Gender Innovation Policy Initiative for Authors: Andrew Brudevold-Newman, Niklas Buehren, Roman Tesfaye Gebremedhin, Ethiopia (GIPIE) and Social Adiam Hagos Hailemicheal, and Tigist Assefa Ketema Protection and Jobs Global Practice, in collaboration with KEY MESSAGES Child Fund and the Food • Women in Ethiopia bear a disproportionate burden of childcare Security Directorate (FSD) of responsibilities, spending approximately eight times the amount the Government of Ethiopia’s of time that men do on childcare. Childcare duties, while critical to the Ministry of Agriculture, initiated a study within the Ethiopia development of the child, could be holding back the earning potential of Productive Safety Nets Program women and households, ultimately diminishing household income and poverty (PSNP) to evaluate a pilot of rural reduction efforts. childcare centers. The objective • In a study in the Amhara region, we explore the demand for and social was to generate rigorous norms around external childcare services through a pilot intervention evidence on the impacts within the context of the Ethiopia Productive Safety Nets Program of providing rural childcare (PSNP). We find that the demand for childcare centers in rural areas is high, through the PSNP on individual and the perceptions around external childcare services are favorable. More and household outcomes. than 95 percent of potential beneficiary households expressed an interest While the intervention and in sending their children to childcare centers and anticipated sending their associated impact evaluation children for 4.6 days/week on average. were suspended due to the conflict in Northern Ethiopia, • High demand was followed by high use of childcare centers: Three- the study provided valuable quarters of the PSNP households selected to take part in this intervention lessons on the demand for and attended the training for caregivers, while 75 percent of the children attended social norms around external the childcare centers. childcare services from a • The high demand and use of these childcare centers are indicative pre-program survey of 2,250 households in the study region of the potential value these services could create for women to and administrative attendance increase their engagement in income-generating activities. Building on data on program use from the the resources developed in the context of this pilot, implementing agencies first months of implementation. could benefit from the training and operational manuals developed in Ethiopia to deliver and evaluate these centers in other contexts within Ethiopia and beyond. Further research could also explore the impact of these services on https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab cognitive, psychosocial, and health outcomes for The implementation was incorporated within a children, as well as individual labor supply, time randomized controlled trial design with the goal of use, income, and empowerment for caregivers. generating rigorous evidence on the impacts of providing Such analysis could provide further evidence rural childcare through the PSNP on individual and on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness household outcomes. Specifically, project stakeholders of these external childcare services to guide identified 90 kebeles across the six project woredas policy and investment decisions related to these that were eligible to receive the childcare centers. These interventions. kebeles were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a treatment group that would receive a childcare center and a control group that would not receive a childcare center. PILOTING RURAL CHILDCARE IN The control group serves as a counterfactual to measure NORTHERN ETHIOPIA TO EASE the impacts of the childcare centers. In each kebele, GENDERED CONSTRAINTS 25 randomly selected childcare-eligible households (15 Childcare is a highly gendered task in Ethiopia. PSNP and 10 non-PSNP) were enrolled in the study and A survey collected by the Central Statistics Agency to completed a baseline survey that interviewed primary measure time-use showed that women spend eight times caregivers who mostly are mothers. The survey covered more time caring for children than men (CSA, 2014). As time-use, attitudes towards childcare as well as farm a result, women caregivers have less time available to and non-farm economic activities. Select non-PSNP spend on income-generating activities. Interventions households were granted access to the program with the aiming to ease childcare responsibilities such as goal of promoting it as a public good of the PSNP and subsidized childcare services in Kenya and the provision enabling more women to undertake income-generating of mobile childcare services in Burkina Faso have proven activities. to be effective at improving women’s participation in economic activities (Clark et al. 2019; Ajayi, Dao, and While the intervention and associated impact Koussoubé 2022). evaluation were suspended due to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, valuable lessons were learned Against this backdrop, the Ethiopia Productive about the demand for and the social norms around Safety Nets Program (PSNP) piloted and evaluated external childcare services. This brief presents findings childcare centers within the program. In collaboration from a pre-program survey of 2,250 households in the with Child Fund, the Africa Gender Innovation Lab, and study region on the gender gap in care responsibilities the Food Security Directorate (FSD) of the Ministry of as well as the demand for and perception around Agriculture with the generous financial support from these services. Additionally, we present findings from the World Bank’s Early Life Partnerships, the PSNP administrative attendance data on program use from the designed a pilot that would establish childcare centers first months of implementation before the program was in six woredas in the Northern part of the Amhara region. suspended. The childcare centers were located in the center of each of the pilot kebeles, with the kebele leadership able to WOMEN BEAR MUCH OF THE choose between co-locating the facility at either a primary CHILDCARE TIME BURDEN WITH school, a health post, or a farmer training center. These PERCEIVED IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR centers were run by public work participants with the INCOME three-pronged goal of: Mothers and their daughters bear much of the childcare burden with little evidence of communal • providing a fun, safe, caring, and stimulating childcare arrangements. Mothers spend an average environment for young children 1-5 years old, of 15 hours per day on childcare-related activities, far • fostering the sensory-motor, cognitive, language, and outpacing other members of the household, including socioemotional skills development of children, and fathers who spend an average of 0.7 hours (Figure 1). In study households with older siblings, sisters were • developing and promoting good caregiving practices. found to spend four times more hours taking care of their EXPRESSED AND DEMONSTRATED FIGURE 1: NUMBER OF HOURS SPENT ON CHILDCARE DEMAND FOR COMMUNITY CHILDCARE IS HIGH, WITH LIMITED 16 15 EVIDENCE OF STRONG SOCIAL NORMS AGAINST THEIR USE 14 The demand for childcare services is very high. After 12 receiving a brief description of the centers, more than 95 percent of potential beneficiary households expressed 10 interest in sending their children to the centers. Moreover, they also reported high anticipated use of the centers, with 8 respondents planning to send their children an average of 4.6 days/week.1 These figures were similar across 6 both PSNP and non-PSNP households, suggesting limited potential stigma in non-PSNP households around 4 participating in a PSNP-affiliated program, which targets 2 the most vulnerable and poor households, or having 0.7 their children attend a childcare center run by PSNP 0 participants. Mothers Fathers FIGURE 2: DEMAND FOR CHILDCARE SERVICES AND EARNINGS EXPECTATIONS younger siblings than brothers. Moreover, within these Care givers who think they Demand for child households, older sisters spent the second-highest could earn greater income care services number of hours on childcare after mothers. Notably, the data provide little evidence in support of existing communal childcare arrangements, with households 60% 95% reporting only around 0.7 hours/day of support from non- household members. Caregivers believe childcare responsibilities reduce their income. Nearly 60 percent of caregivers believe they are earning less income due to their childcare responsibilities. Those who believe they are earning less because of their childcare responsibilities were asked There is limited evidence of social norms against how much they think they would be able to earn had the use of childcare centers. Social norms that stand there not been childcare duties. On average, these against the use of childcare centers may discourage study caregivers believe they would be able to generate an participants from sending their children to the centers. To additional income of 34 dollars per month in the absence assess the prevalence of such norms, the participants of their childcare responsibilities. This anticipated were asked to what extent they believe women in their income corresponds to a 72 percent increase in monthly community would send their children to the centers. On earnings for PSNP households and a 48 percent increase average, eight out of ten women were thought to use the for non-PSNP households. It is, however, crucial to note centers regardless of their PSNP status. that anticipated gains in income could vary from realized gains as the former is prone to bias. 1 The childcare centers were open for five days in a week. The expressed demand was followed by demonstrated demand with high use of the childcare centers. While high demand is encouraging, it does not necessarily result in the use of childcare centers. To monitor the use of these childcare centers, administrative attendance data were collected. Three- quarters of the PSNP households selected to take part in this intervention attended the training for caregivers. Additionally, data from June 2021 shows that on a given day, 75 percent of the children attended the childcare centers. This shows that both attendance in childcare training, as well as enrollment and attendance in childcare centers, is high. NEXT STEPS The strong demand for and use of childcare centers found in the pilot can not only inform future efforts to reinstate and expand these services within the context of the Ethiopia PSNP, but also bolster the existing regional evidence establishing demand for childcare services in rural settings. The implementation materials, organizational experience, and program evidence developed through the pilot will bolster the latest phase of the Ethiopia PSNP, which scales up its support to poor and vulnerable rural households and includes childcare services for participant households. The implementation materials, including the childcare center operational and training manuals, could be utilized in future efforts to deliver these childcare interventions within the PSNP and beyond, with appropriate adaptations. Similarly, implementing organizations with experience working in rural areas of Ethiopia remain available to deliver childcare services in these settings. Furthermore, while the strong demand and use of the childcare centers is encouraging, there remains a relative lack of evidence around the impact of childcare interventions on rural women’s economic empowerment and child outcomes in Ethiopia: further testing to verify their effectiveness and cost- effectiveness should complement efforts to pilot and scale-up these services. More rigorous evidence is needed to understand the impacts of community-based rural childcare centers on child development and caregiver outcomes. While these surveys provide a useful glimpse into the demand for and norms around external childcare in rural settings, they cannot tell the full story around the effects of these centers on cognitive, psychosocial, FOR MORE INFORMATION, and health outcomes for children, as well as individual labor supply, time use, PLEASE CONTACT income, and empowerment for caregivers. An impact evaluation study could test whether the childcare centers affect these key outcomes, providing Niklas Buehren additional insights on the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential nbuehren@worldbank.org scalability of such interventions. Adiam Hagos Hailemicheal ahailemicheal@worldbank.org Amy Geist ageist@worldbank.org Photo credit: Binyam Teshome / World Bank, Child Fund 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA This work has been funded in part by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), which is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through experimentation and www.worldbank.org/africa/gil knowledge creation to help governments and the private sector focus policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund.