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Field
Abstract
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Before
Recent government interventions recognize the importance of addressing unpaid care work as a national development issue, but few policy actions to date have focused on reducing and redistributing care work.
Using mixed methods approach, the study intends to test childcare models that work for vulnerable businesswomen in markets in Kampala, Uganda. The RCT covers two intervention arms: providing access to a parenting care facility within the market, and a financial subsidy to women to access a community childcare center of their choice.
By focusing on unstructured markets, this project will directly reach poor mothers who do not have access to childcare, while informing government responses to childcare gaps in other contexts.
The expected primary outcome of the intervention will be change in women’s business productivity and profitability.
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After
Heavy childcare responsibilities can negatively impact both women's economic outcomes and well-being. A growing literature has shown positive impacts of gaining access to childcare, although there remains almost no evidence of what types of services work best and the implications of different alternatives. In a sample of 972 women working in six markets in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, Uganda, this project uses a randomized controlled trial to test and contrast the impacts of gaining free access to two alternative childcare services frequently considered by policy-makers. The first has been set up as a publicly provisioned model of workplace-based childcare, situated in or adjacent to the markets where women work. The second leverages existing private sector childcare service providers located in the communities near where women live.
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