#4 POLICY LESSONS ON ACCESS TO AND UPTAKE OF CHILDCARE SERVICES GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION EVIDENCE SERIES GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) Federation is a World Bank community of practice coordinated by the Gender Group that brings together the Bank’s five regional GILs: Africa (AFR), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Middle East and North Africa (MNA), and South Asia (SAR). Together, they are conducting impact evaluations of development interventions to generate evidence and lessons on how to close gender gaps in human capital, earnings, productivity, assets, voice and agency. With over 188 impact evaluations in 66 countries completed to date, the GIL Federation is building the evidence base for governments, development organizations, and the private sector to increase uptake of effective policies that address the underlying causes of gender inequality. Unpaid care work and the lack of access to improving the allocation of talent, and matching of affordable child care constitute key barriers to employees to jobs.10 Access to childcare can also improve child development outcomes, and enable older women’s participation in labor markets. The children to continue their schooling and focus on International Labour Organization estimates that, in learning. The GIL Federation is generating rigorous 2018, 647 million working-age adults were hindered from entering the workforce due to family evidence around the world to understand what responsibilities—94 percent of whom were women. In works, and what does not, in increasing access to that year, women’s unpaid care work amounted to and uptake of childcare services. This note presents three-quarters of total unpaid care work, with an evidence on three key findings. estimated value of 9 precent of global GDP.1 A pilot study by the MNA GIL in Egypt finds that, on average, mothers spent 11 hours per day on childcare and seven FINDING 1. AFFORDABLE CHILDCARE hours per day doing household chores.2 The EAP GIL reviewed causal evidence on the effects of childcare OPTIONS CAN HAVE POSITIVE IMPACTS ON interventions on maternal labor market engagement in BOTH WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT low and middle-income countries and found positive AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT impacts for 21 out of the 22 studies considered.3 The most vulnerable families need low-cost or free childcare options. In Burkina Faso, mothers working on Caregiving responsibilities significantly increased construction sites as part of an urban public works during the COVID-19 pandemic.4,5 In parallel, cross- component of a youth employment program often had country surveys (including work by the LAC, MNA, and to choose between bringing their children with them to Africa GILs) indicate that both women entrepreneurs dangerous work sites or leaving them home alone or and women workers suffered more negative effects of with elderly relatives or younger siblings. After the COVID-19 pandemic than their male peers.6,7,8,9 consulting with mothers and listening carefully to their needs, a pilot study trained selected women to provide Access to affordable, quality childcare can allow high-quality childcare and equipped them to run mobile parents to return to work, increase their productivity and crèches that followed mothers as the public work sites have overall positive impacts on the economy. For changed.11 A randomized controlled trial (RCT) by the example, an EAP GIL study finds that availability of Africa GIL finds that the provision of mobile crèches preschools increased firm productivity in Indonesia by tripled the use of childcare centers for children up to enabling more women to enter the labor market, age 6., demonstrating high unmet demand.12 Access to the crèches positively impacted child development, as well as women’s labor force participation, their A review of causal evidence on the relationship between psychological well-being, and their financial resilience childcare services and maternal engagement carried and savings. out by the EAP GIL also suggests that features that Two other studies by the Africa GIL also find very high make childcare services more compatible with uptake rates of low-cost childcare services. The first demands of the work day are important to maximize study, an RCT testing an intervention that helped potential impacts of childcare services on women. 17 communities establish low-cost childcare services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it finds positive impacts on both women’s and men’s economic engagement and FINDING 3. INFORMATION AND BEHAVIORAL household earnings, as well as on child development.13 MESSAGES CAN INCREASE UPTAKE OF The second study also finds high usage of low-cost childcare services developed by rural communities in CHILDCARE SERVICES AND FATHER’S Ethiopia through the country’s Productive Safety Net ENGAGEMENT IN CARE ACTIVITIES Program. The impact evaluation of that study was In 2013, Uruguay implemented a part-time fully paid suspended due to the conflict in Northern Ethiopia.14 parental leave for private workers to be shared between mother and father. However, only 4.5 percent of fathers These findings of simultaneous improvements in women take the benefit, while 70 percent of eligible mothers do. economic engagement and child development are in Key factors explaining fathers’ low uptake include lack line with a recent study by the EAP GIL in Indonesia of information about the parental leave benefit, showing that maternal employment can lead to perceived financial costs associated with taking improved child outcomes. The study pooled different parental leave, and social norms dictating that childcare data sources to construct a dataset with 32,000 should be provided by the mother. observations of children aged 6 to 18.15 It used a two- stage least squares strategy exploiting exogenous The LAC GIL conducted an RCT to examine the effects changes in tariffs on female-intensive sectors to of an information and awareness-raising intervention estimate the effects of maternal employment on child (delivered via email and text messages) on men’s and health outcomes. The findings indicate that maternal women’s awareness and intentions of shared uptake of employment could have positive long-term impacts on a parental leave program. 18 The experiment provided children's development outcomes. Mothers’ information about the program to recent and employment significantly increased children’s years of prospective parents who met the social security schooling and enrollment in school, and positively requirements for it. The intervention was successful in affected health outcomes, such as height for age and increasing knowledge about the parental leave hemoglobin levels. program, particularly among men. Messages about fathers’ involvement and couples’ planning also shifted women’s views of traditional gender norms. However, FINDING 2. CHILDCARE SERVICES NEED TO the strong association between parental leave and BE OPEN DURING WORK HOURS TO FOSTER breastfeeding led fathers to privilege the mothers’ use WOMEN’S PAID EMPLOYMENT AND of the leave benefit. These results show that low-cost, EARNINGS targeted information interventions can have substantial effects on program knowledge among potential The EAP GIL analyzed the effects of public preschool beneficiaries. Furthermore, these interventions can expansion on women’s labor supply and job quality in support more equal gender roles and change gendered Indonesia. Using panel dataset covering 20 years and a attitudes toward care responsibilities. triple differences approach to exploit variations in preschool availability over time and across districts, as A pilot survey study by the MNA GIL in Egypt shows well as preschool-age-eligibility cutoffs, the study finds that women are not aware of the existence of childcare strong impacts on women’s employment (driven by located nearby, stating childcare is a primary reason unpaid family work) but no effect on earnings.16 The they are not working.19 An information intervention could authors argue that the modality of preschools, operating be impactful in this instance. However, there is only three hours per day, was unlikely to enable women evidence that multiple constraints can affect the uptake to secure a paid job outside the home with longer time of childcare services. commitments. The MNA GIL, in partnership with the Jameel Poverty reported that leaving children with maternal and Action Lab (J-PAL) in Egypt, conducted an RCT to paternal family members was more acceptable. evaluate the impact of subsidized childcare on mothers with young children and whether that could increase The authors argue that given that women face multiple women’s participation in the labor market.20 The study barriers, multifaceted interventions are needed to cross-randomized two interventions: childcare subsidies increase the uptake of childcare services. Improving and employment interventions. The uptake of both childcare quality, accessibility, and affordability, interventions was low, and there were then no effects on coupled with shifting gender norms toward normalizing labor market outcomes. The study finds that safety, the use of childcare services, are important in informing quality, distance, and family care issues were the main policy design and increasing women's economic concerns for families not using childcare services. participation. Restrictive gender norms were another key factor underlying the low uptake of interventions. Women FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Diego Ubfal dubfal@worldbank.org 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This brief is a product of collaboration between the World Bank Gender Group and the Gender Innovation Labs. It was prepared by Daniel Halim, Diego Ubfal, and Rigzom Wangchuk with key inputs from Diana Arango, Elizaveta Perova, and Rachael Pierotti. It was copy-edited by Leslie Ashby. Other contributors include Lourdes Rodriguez Chamussy, Maria Emilia Cucagna, Isis Gaddis, Markus Goldstein, Jacobus Joost De Hoop, Forest Brach Jarvis, Hillary C. Johnson, Lili Mottaghi, Michael B. O'Sullivan, Laura B. Rawlings, Javier Romero, Jayati Sethi, and Emcet Tas. The World Bank GILs and the GIL Federation are supported by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank and 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. ENDNOTES 1 Addati, Laura, Umberto Cattaneo, Valeria Esquivel, and Isabel Valarino. 2018. Care Work and Care Jobs: For the Future of Decent Work. International Labour Organization. 2 Mottaghi, Lili, Bruno Crepon, Caroline Krafft, Stefano Caria, AbdelRahman Nagy and Noha Fadl. 2021. Why is Female Labor Force Participation Low and Stagnant in MENA? Experimental Evidence from Egypt. MNAGIL Research and Policy Brief. World Bank. 3 Halim, Daniel, Elizaveta Perova, and Sarah Reynolds. 2022. Childcare and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries. The World Bank Research Observer: lkac003. 4 UN Women. 2020. Whose Time to Care? Unpaid Care and Domestic Work During COVID-19. Technical Report, UN Women. 5 Abel, Martin, Emcet Tas, Najaf Zahra, Tanya D’Lima, Anna Kalashyan, and Jayati Sethi. Work and Intra-Household Tensions during COVID-19: Evidence from an Online Survey of Gig Workers in India. Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief. The World Bank. 6 Kugler, Maurice, Mariana Viollaz, Daniel Duque, Isis Gaddis, David Newhouse, Amparo Palacios-Lopez, and Michael Weber. 2021. How Did the COVID-19 Crisis Affect Different Types of Workers in the Developing World? Jobs Watch COVID-19, World Bank, 7 Cucagna, Emilia, and Javier Romero. 2021. The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Labor Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. LAC GIL Policy Brief, World Bank. See also the note by LAC GIL and UNDP. 2021. Uneven Recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean: are women being left behind?. Finally, LAC GIL also prepared a report with evidence from Chile: LAC GIL. 2021. Diez mensajes sobre COVID-19 y trabajo femenino en Chile. Impactos y desafíos. LAC GIL Policy Brief. 8 Goldstein, Markus, Paula Gonzalez, Sreelakshmi Papineni, and Joshua Wimpey. 2022. Childcare, COVID-19 and Female Firm Exit. Blog published on Data Blog on April 28, 2022, World Bank. 9 See footnote 2. 10 Cali, Massimiliano, Hillary Johnson, Elizaveta Perova, and Nabil Ryandiansyah. 2022. Caring for Children and Firms? The Impact of Preschool Expansion on Firm Productivity. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 10193. 11 Africa GIL. 2021. Enabling Women to Work and Their Children to Blossom: The Double Success Story of Mobile Childcare in Burkina Faso. Feature Story. World Bank. March 8, 2021. 12 Ajayi, Kehinde, Aziz Dao, and Estelle Koussoubé. 2022. The Effects of Childcare on Women and Children: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Burkina Faso. Forthcoming in Policy Research Working Paper Series, World Bank. 13 Donald, Aletheia, Francisco Campos, Julia Vaillant, and Maria Emilia Cucagna. 2018. Investing in Childcare for Women's Economic Empowerment. Africa GIL Policy Brief 27, World Bank. 14 Brudevold-Newman, Andrew, Niklas Buehren, Roman Tesfaye Gebremedhin, Adiam Hagos Hailemicheal, and Tigist Assefa Ketema. 2022. Household Demand and Community Perceptions of Community-Based Childcare. Africa GIL Policy Brief, World Bank. 15 Dervisevic, Ervin, Maria Lo Bue, and Elizaveta Perova. 2021. Maternal employment and children’s outcomes. Evidence from Indonesia. WIDER Working Paper 2021/186. 16 Halim, Daniel, Hillary Johnson, and Elizaveta Perova. 2022. Preschool Availability and Women’s Employment: Evidence from Indonesia. Economic Development and Cultural Change 71(1): 39-61. 17 Halim, Daniel, Elizaveta Perova, and Sarah Reynolds. 2022. Childcare and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries. The World Bank Research Observer: lkac003. 18 Querejeta, Martina, Cecilia Olivieri, Ailin Tomio, Jorge Luis Castaneda and Ana María Muñoz. 2022. Sharing parental leave between mothers and fathers: experimental evidence from a messaging intervention in Uruguay. Forthcoming in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series. 19 Mottaghi, Lili, Bruno Crepon, Caroline Krafft, Stefano Caria, AbdelRahman Nagy and Noha Fadl. 2021. Why is Female Labor Force Participation Low and Stagnant in MENA? Experimental Evidence from Egypt. MNAGIL Research and Policy Brief. World Bank. 20 Caria, Stefano, Bruno Crepon, Hala ElBehairy, Noha Fadlalmawla, Caroline Krafft, Abdelrahman Nagy, Lili Mottaghi, Nahla Zeitoun, and Souraya El Assiouty. 2022. Child Care Subsidies, Employment Services and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Egypt: First Midline Results. MNAGIL Research and Policy Working Paper. World Bank.