CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? - An evidence brief - Unicef
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CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 1 An evidence brief CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? An evidence brief
2 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence brief
Authors: Emma Samman and Joan Lombardi
Cover photo:
© UNICEF/UN0220808/MatasCHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 1
An evidence brief
Introduction
Childcare is a key pillar of the Family-Friendly Poli- These statistics highlight the need for global action,
cies initiative, which advocates for government and as encapsulated in the Sustainable Development
business support to families in providing nurturing Goals (SDGs). In particular, the action needed relates
care for young children. This brief argues for greater to the targets focused on ensuring that all young
investment in affordable and quality childcare, high- children access quality early childhood programming
lighting its potential to secure a ‘triple dividend’ of (4.2), valuing and supporting unpaid care work (5.4)
young children’s positive development, women’s em- and promoting decent work for all (8.5) – amid the
powerment and economic growth. overriding pledge that ‘no one will be left behind’ and
efforts will aim ‘to reach the furthest behind first’.9
Our starting point is a global crisis of care – which is
leaving millions of children without adequate support Given that inadequate care provision curtails the
and placing severe constraints on their caregivers, current and future productivity of caregivers and chil-
who are primarily mothers, grandmothers and girls.1 dren, it follows that providing high-quality care could
Several stylized facts underline these points. yield sizeable economic gains:
Currently, millions of children lack access to quality • Unpaid work undertaken by women is valued
care: at up to $10 trillion yearly (13 per cent of global
gross domestic product, or GDP) – one implica-
• In 76 low- and middle-income countries (LICs and tion is that between 2016 and 2025, gender parity
MICs), just over one in five children under age 5 in labour markets could boost global GDP by up to
(some 45 million) lacked adult supervision for at $28 trillion.10
least an hour in a given week.2
• In member countries of the Organisation for Eco-
• In 67 LICs and MICs, nearly 57 million children nomic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
aged 3 to 5 (69 per cent) did not attend an early closing the gap in female labour force participa-
childhood education programme.3 tion could raise GDP by 12 per cent by 2030.11
• In LICs and MICs, 43 per cent of children under • Across 73 LICs and MICs, increasing preschool
age 5 – an estimated 250 million – risk suboptimal enrolment to 50 per cent in a single year could
development due to poverty and stunting.4 grow a country’s productivity by US$33 billion
across those children’s lifetimes, with a bene-
Care responsibilities often compromise women’s fit-to-cost ratio of between $6.4 and $17.6.12
economic empowerment:
• Across 37 countries, women took on 75 per cent
of childcare.5
• In 2018, global female labour force participation
stood at 48 per cent, compared with 75 per cent
for men.6 Latin America is the only region where
women’s participation has risen strongly since
1990.7
• Across 89 countries, women in their prime repro-
ductive years (25–34) are 22 per cent more likely
than men to live in extreme poverty.82 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence brief
Evidence and policy adoption
For LICs and MICs, cross-national data on who is car- Data limitations notwithstanding, it is clear that
ing for young children, the quality of that care and its one of the most important aspects of quality is the
cost (both out-of-pocket costs incurred by families, training, supervision and support of the workforce.
and public financing) are extremely limited – itself Studies have shown that early childhood education
one example of how care is often neglected. Since professionals require at least some specialized
such data are not well measured, making and evalu- education and training, geared both to affective di-
ating policy that takes these figures into account is mensions of early childhood care and to learning and
all the more difficult. However, a growing evidence cognition.14 A child’s day-to-day experiences in early
base focuses on the benefits of investing in early learning settings, often known as ‘process quality’,
childhood development. encompass interactions between caregiver and chil-
dren, and among children and their peers, as well as
Precise figures on how much care is occurring across the quality of daily routines and the implementation
different contexts are unavailable. The most recent of curricula.15 Evidence from studies in Latin America
estimate was based on surveys from just 31 coun- suggest extremely low levels of process quality.16, 17
tries, the latest of which was from 2002.13 These
surveys asked working women with children under
the age of 6 years who cared for their children when
they worked. The largest share – 39 per cent of re-
spondents – reported looking after the children them-
selves, while 22 per cent left them with a relative, 12
per cent left them in the care of a female child, and
4 per cent left them in a nursery or with a domestic
worker. But there is little information about how rep-
resentative these surveys are of wider patterns or
trends, or if they are valid today.
Typical childcare arrangement for employed women with children under age 6
Very few empoloyed women in developing countries have access
to organized childcare or nurseries
Poorest Richest Avarage
45 44
40 39
35
30 29
26 28
25 22
20 18
15
15
12 10
10 5
5 4 5 4 4 5 3 3
5 2 3
1 0 1
0
Respondent Other Other Neighbours/ Organized Domestic Other male Husband/
herself relatives female friends/ childcare/ worker/ child partner
child others nursery hired help
Source: Unweighted averages calculated by UN Women using data from ICF International 2015.
Note: N=31 developing countries. Surveys were conducted between 1995 and 2002. This indicator corresponds to the percentage of respondents
answering the question ‘Who looks after your child(ren) while you are at work?’CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 3
An evidence brief
A lack of financing contributes to the ability to recruit countries, a recent study estimated the cost of child-
and retain a qualified workforce. Often early child- care or preschool for a 2-year-old at about 27 per cent
hood workers are undervalued, underpaid and inade- of an average worker’s gross wage, from about 3 per
quately prepared.18 This is true both in the non-profit cent of average earnings in Austria to 50 per cent or
sector ‘which tends to run on ‘deeply gendered more in Australia, the Netherlands and the United
volunteerism’ that can at times amount to “self-ex- Kingdom, among other countries.28
ploitation”’ and in the for-profit sector, ‘which tends
to offer jobs that are poorly paid, poorly respected Costs notwithstanding, evidence is accumulating
and poorly protected’.19 Recent efforts by the Early that public investments in early childhood develop-
Childhood Workforce Initiative have begun to doc- ment can produce tremendous gains, especially for
ument the challenges facing the workforce, with a disadvantaged children.29 Annual returns on such
series of recent case studies highlighting inadequate investments start at 7 per cent and can be even high-
training, low renumeration and a lack of professional er when the longer-term benefits of human capital
recognition.20 Without public resources, there will development are factored in. For example, a 2016
continue to be trade-offs between the quality of care study conducted in the United States analysed two
and the affordability of that care for parents, although programmes that began in the 1970s and provided
overall, societies reap returns from the investments free childcare for children ages 8 weeks to 5 years
made in young children.21 old in low-income families. The study found marked
sustainable benefits in income, level of schooling,
A chief barrier that families face in accessing child- health, quality of life and other aspects of adult de-
care is cost.22 Data amassed from country reports velopment.30 Pre-primary education is also the most
show that only 45 per cent of countries worldwide cost-effective stage of education: the opportunity
provide tuition-free pre-primary education, a figure cost of children’s time is lowest; early interventions
which falls to 15 per cent for LICs.23 Moreover, sur- are known to have larger effects on cognitive skills;
veys with caregivers24 and the spotty available data and participation can spur enrolment and attainment
on the out-of-pocket costs of private formal care in in later grades.31 Yet efforts to boost pre-primary at-
LICs and MICs point to significant expense. For ex- tendance are vastly underfunded.
ample:
In LICs and MICs, on average 0.08 per cent of
• a 2005 survey in Nigeria’s Edo state found that, GDP is spent on pre-primary education, whereas
on average, private kindergarten for a single child an estimated 0.32 per cent is needed to provide a
cost more than half the salary of someone earn- year of universal pre-primary education, as per SDG
ing the minimum wage.25 target 4.2 (a fourfold increase).32 A small number of
countries have prioritized preschool: in Viet Nam,
• a study of four peri-urban areas of sub-Saharan the State of Palestine and the United Republic of
Africa found that the average cost of a child in Tanzania, enrolment has risen by at least 20 per cent
preschool represented between one quarter and in less than a decade.33 But the broader trend is that
nearly half of an average person’s monthly spend- government funding falls short, as does donor financ-
ing.26 ing: investments in early childhood education current-
ly stand at 0.5 per cent of total education aid, a fig-
In Latin America, in contrast, where public sector ure that reflects a 27 per cent decline between 2015
involvement in providing childcare is extensive, and 2017.34 Moreover, investments needed in early
the evidence suggests that publicly supported pro- childhood go well beyond pre-primary education to
grammes are either affordable (below 10 per cent of include health care, parental outreach and birth reg-
the average household per capita income) or mod- istration – as reflected in the recent call of the Devel-
erately so (between 10 per cent and 20 per cent). opment Working Group of the G20 Initiative for Early
At the same time, survey data from six countries Childhood Development for a minimum domestic
showed that among the third of households that pay benchmark of 1 per cent of GDP for early childhood
fees for childcare, average out-of-pocket expenses development, with LICs requiring additional interna-
represented more than 10 per cent of household tional assistance.35 The goal is 2 per cent of GDP.
income in all countries and nearly 30 per cent of in-
come in Guatemala.27 The other aspect of the situation is that the trade-
In high-income countries, childcare is costly in offs that mothers face between caring for their
relation to people’s earnings, and some evidence children and engaging in paid work compromise
suggests that it has become more so. In 34 OECD their economic empowerment, not least by reducing4 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence brief
labour market engagement, entrenching segmenta- A key policy response is the development and expan-
tion and increasing the likelihood of taking up work sion of access to subsidized childcare, which raises
that is part-time, informal, more insecure and home- the probability of female employment and the num-
based.36 Estimates of the cost of foregone paid ber of hours worked, notably where baseline levels
work abound – e.g., in economies in Latin America of global female labour force participation are low.1
and the Caribbean (where 50–60 per cent of wom- For example, an experiment in Nairobi found that use
en participated in labour markets), Mateo Diaz and of subsidized childcare by poor women boosted their
Rodriguez-Chamussy (2016) report losses ranging likelihood of employment by 20 percentage points,40
from 3.5 per cent of GDP (Mexico) to 16.8 per cent gains that are echoed in studies from other parts of
(Honduras), based on the education levels of women the world.41 Societies stand to benefit both from the
outside the labour market.37 Poor working condi- economic returns to this increased female labour
tions– such as long and unpredictable hours, shift supply and from the potential to create jobs and gen-
work, long travel times, and unreliable and expensive erate incomes within the childcare industry. But the
transport – also compromise access to childcare. provision of childcare alone is insufficient to improve
One way that women aim to reconcile this tension is women’s labour market outcomes – complementary
to take their children with them to their paid work, as policies and investments are needed to promote ed-
did 39 per cent of working women according to the ucation, maternity leave and other labour protections
UN Women report described above.38 Such actions (particularly for informal workers) and workplace poli-
put additional pressures on caregivers and risks ex- cies such as flexible working arrangements.42
posing young children to unsafe working conditions.
Recommendations
The call to action in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Issues relating to early childhood development
Development and the 2018 G20 Initiative for Early should not be separated from the broader family
Childhood Development,43 together with the current context. So-called ‘whole family’ or ‘two generation’
momentum around women’s economic empow- approaches recognize how parental education, eco-
erment, provides an opportune moment to secure nomic stability and health affects children’s develop-
transformative change in the lives of women and chil- ment trajectories, and vice versa, and point to the
dren. The overarching recommendation of this brief synergies that can result from providing early child-
is that governments should aim to ensure universal hood services alongside support for families.44
access to quality early childhood care for all children
(including pre-primary education, childcare centres, The historic bifurcation of childcare and education or
home care) and support for informal care provided childcare and health stands in the way of address-
by family, friends and neighbours). Public preschool ing the whole needs of families. The new vision for
resources should be integrated into settings that childcare must be seen as an opportunity rather
are responsive to the diverse needs of working than a deficit, and as an opportunity to promote
families, which should be seen as an opportunity to safety and security, health, nutrition, education and
promote education, health and nutrition as well as responsive caregiving – all key elements of nurtur-
family engagement. Special efforts must be made ing care.45
to recruit and retain a qualified early childhood work-
force. Home visiting programmes and/or networks of
support traditionally geared to parents can be used
to reach home-based childcare providers with infor-
mation, materials and training on child development.
Moreover, the needs for care do not stop when chil-
dren reach school age. Well-supervised and develop-
mentally supportive settings must be assured after
school hours and during the summer months when
school may not be in session.
1. A notable global model is Mexico’s Estancias programme.39CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 5
An evidence brief
Recommendations for governments: Other recommendations:
• Develop cross-sector national childcare plans that • Invest in diagnostics to ascertain the benefits and
assess the needs of working families (both those costs associated with providing or facilitating ac-
in the formal and informal economies), develop cess to quality childcare.47, 48
and realign early childhood policies to meet those
needs, and promote innovative public and private • Canvass employee demand for and preferences
partnerships. with respect to childcare services to help inform
the design of apt and contextually relevant op-
• Mobilize and channel public funds to subsidize tions.49
care provision (in homes, centres and other com-
munity-based organizations) and to support the • Support public policies that promote financing to
childcare workforce. assure affordability and quality.
• Encourage private companies to assess employ- Finally, hybrid schemes based on public-private coor-
ee childcare needs and invest in solutions to meet dination offer huge potential.2
those needs and those of the surrounding com-
munity.
Additional recommendations:
• Improve data collection of essential indicators on
access to, quality of and costs of childcare, partic- • Identify synergies and complementarities in
ularly for low-income families. terms of what public and private efforts can con-
tribute (in terms of service provision and financ-
Employers stand to benefit from recognizing the ing) and the likely returns; and
business case for investing in childcare alongside
other family-friendly policies and putting in place ap- • Set up innovative funding mechanisms to spur
propriate policies. Recent evidence – based largely investment in family-friendly policies such as
based on case studies of companies – demonstrates low-interest loans, earmarked taxes, payments by
that returns can be sizeable – as in Viet Nam, where results schemes and social impact bonds (which
textile producer Nalt Enterprise’s offer of childcare make returns to investment conditional on im-
reduced staff turnover by one third, or in Jordan, proved social outcomes).50
where after the establishment of a workplace creche
at garment manufacturer MAS Kreeda Al Safi-Mada-
ba, absences due to sick leave fell 9 per cent in nine
months.46
2. Examples are Mobile Crèche in India, Kidogo Innovations in Kenya, and Smartstart in South Africa.6 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence brief
Endnotes
1. Samman, Emma, et al., ‘Women’s Work: Mothers, children ington, DC, 2016, < http://documents.worldbank.org/
and the global childcare crisis’, Overseas Development Insti- curated/en/474431473958525937/pdf/108285-revised-pub-
tute, London, March 2016, .
org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/10333.pdf>. 16. Berlinski, Samuel and Schady, Norbert, ‘More Bang for the
2. United Nations Children’s Fund, Every moment matters for Buck: Investing in early childhood development.’ The Early
every child, UNICEF, New York, 2017, . January 2015, pp. 149-178.
3. Ibid. 17. Araujo, M. C., ‘How to Promote High-Quality Child Care
4. Richter, Linda M., et al., Advancing Early Childhood Devel- Services in Latin America’, IADB. Washington DC, 2017,
opment: from Science to Scale 3 Investing in the foundation .
childhood development, The Lancet, 2016, . and Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce’, Early Child-
5. Samman, Emma, et al., ‘Women’s Work: Mothers, children hood Matters: Advances in Early Childhood Development
and the global childcare crisis’, Overseas Development Insti- 127, 2018, pp. 59-64.
tute, London, March 2016. 19. Samman, Emma, et al., ‘Women’s Work: Mothers, children
6. World Bank, World Development Indicators. Washington DC, and the global childcare crisis’, Overseas Development Insti-
2019, .
7. Klasen, Stephan, ‘What Explains Uneven Female Labor 20. Early Childhood Workforce Initiative, ‘Country Briefs’, 2019,
Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Coun- .
tries?’, Discussion Paper No. 246, Courant Research Centre: 21. Folbre, Nancy, ‘Children As Public Goods’, The American
Poverty, Equity and Growth, 2018, .
8. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empow- 22. Moussié, Rachel, ‘Childcare From the Perspective of Women
erment of Women, UN Women and the World Bank Unveil in the Informal Economy’, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level
New Data Analysis on Women and Poverty, UN Women, Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, 2016, . 23. Milovantseva, Natalie, et al., ‘Monitoring Progress Toward
9. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/1, Trans- Meeting the United Nations SDG on Pre-primary Education:
forming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Devel- An important step towards more equitable and sustainable
opment, A/RES/70/1, October 2015, . vol. 13, no. 4, 2018, pp.122-143, .
ity Can Add $12 Trillion to Global Growth’, McKinsey & Com- 24. Bhatkal, Tanvi, ‘What Do Women Want? Gender, percep-
pany, 2015, . 25. Olubor, Roseline O., Private Cost Analysis of Pre-School
11. Thévenon, Olivier, et al., ‘Effects of Reducing Gender Gaps Education in Nigerian Private Schools, J Soc Sci, vol.19, no.2,
in Education and Labour Force Participation on Economic 2009, pp.141-148, . 26. Bidwell, Kelly and Watine, Loïc, ‘Exploring Early Education
12. Engle, Patrice L., et al., ‘Strategies for Reducing Inequalities Problems in Peri-urban Settings in Africa: Final Report’, In-
and Improving Developmental Outcomes for Young Children novations for Poverty Action, Newhaven, CT, 2014, .
. 27. Díaz, Mercedes M. eand Rodriguez-Chamussy,
13. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empower- Lourdes. ‘Cashing in on Education: Women, childcare, and
ment of Women, Progress of the World’s Women 2015–2016: prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean’, Interna-
Transforming economies, realizing rights, UN Women, New tional Bank of Reconstruction and Development and The
York, 2015, < http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/pub- World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016, . iadb.org/publications/english/document/Cashing-in-on-Ed-
14. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi- ucation-Women-Childcare-and-Prosperity-in-Latin-Ameri-
zation, Global Monitoring Report: Education for All 2000- ca-and-the-Caribbean.pdf>.
2015 - Achievements and Challenges, UNESCO, Paris, 2015, 28. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
. OECD Family Database, 2017, .
the quality of early learning programs, World Bank, Wash-CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 7
An evidence brief
29. Heckman, James J., ‘Schools, Skills, and Synapses’, Eco- 40. Clark, Shelley, et al., ‘Can Subsidized Early Child Care Pro-
nomic Inquiry vol. 46, no. 3, 2008, pp.289-324, . ment in Africa’, Grow Working Paper Series (GWP-2017-05),
30. García, Jorge L., et al., ‘Quantifying the Life-Cycle Benefits Institute for the Study of International Development, Mon-
of a Prototypical Early Childhood Program’, Working Paper treal, Canada, 2017, .
. 41. Ibid.
31. Psacharopoulos, George ‘Benefits and Costs of the Educa- 42. Ibid.
tion Targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Educa- 43. Ibid.
tion perspective paper’, Copenhagen Consensus Center, July 44. Ascend at the Aspen Institute and the Bernard Van Leer
2014, . Approach, September 2016, .
ment: An analysis of international and domestic sources in 45. World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Bank Group, EC-
low-and middle-income countries’, Results for Development DAN, The Partnership for Maternal Newborn & Child Health,
Institute, Washington, DC, August 2016. ‘Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development: A frame-
33. Zubairi, Asma and Rose, Pauline ‘Leaving the Youngest Be- work for helping children survive and thrive to transform
hind: Declining aid to early childhood education’, Theirworld, health and human potential’, WHO, Geneva, 2018, . 46. International Finance Corporation, Tackling Childcare: The
34. Ibid. business case for employer-supported childcare, IFC, 2017,
35. Britto, Pia, et al., ‘G20’s Initiative for Early Childhood De- .
36. Hunt, Abigail and Samman, Emma, ‘Women’s Economic Em- 47. Ibid.
powerment: Navigating Enablers and Constraints’, Overseas 48. Gammage, Sarah, et al., The Hidden Costs of Unpaid Caregiv-
Development Institute, London, 2016, . Washington, DC, March 2019, pp. 21-23, .
38. Ibid. 49. Ibid.
39. Ibid. 50. Ibid.8 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence briefCHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK? 9 An evidence brief
10 CHILDCARE AND WORKING FAMILIES: NEW OPPORTUNITY OR MISSING LINK?
An evidence brief
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