Scaling Child Care Innovations: To Promote Women Economic Empowerment and Child Development in Ethiopia

ActionAid Ethiopia (AAE) is a gender justice, good governance, and poverty eradication organization. It envisions a country where all enjoys their rights equally and live a decent life. Its heart lies on gender equality where it designs its frameworks and operations on women’s and girls’ empowerment and abolishing root causes of violence against women and girls. Its interventions are guided by the Human Rights Based Approach, Gender Transformative and Intersectional Feminist Approaches. Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in partnership with ActionAid Ethiopia (AAE) with the involvement of key government actors, Addis Ababa City Administration Mayor’s Office and the Addis Ababa City Administration Women, Children and Social Affairs Bureau , is generating evinced and supporting the Scaling of Child Care to Promote Women’s Economic Empowerment and Child Development project funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC.CRDI) and Government Affairs Canada (GAC), aiming to enhance access to quality childcare, support women’s economic participation, and strengthen child development outcomes. In Ethiopia, children under the age of five account for approximately 16% of the national population, while pre-primary education enrollment remains low. Childcare is increasingly recognized as a critical component of social and economic development, particularly in advancing women’s economic empowerment and promoting early childhood development. In Ethiopia, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic responsibilities, limiting their participation in education, employment, leadership, and income-generating opportunities. Recognizing these interconnected challenges, significant efforts have been made to expand childcare services and strengthen systems that support women, children, and families. This document presents key findings and emerging lessons from the implementation and assessment of childcare services initiative between 2023 and 2026 in Addis Ababa. It highlights progress made in expanding childcare access, improving women’s labor participation, strengthening child development outcomes, and increasing public investment in childcare systems. The study begins by situating childcare within Ethiopia’s broader socio-economic and demographic realities. Women globally spend approximately 3.2 times more hours on unpaid care work than men, and this imbalance continues to limit women’s economic participation and income-generating opportunities. The document also outlines persistent challenges related to service quality, disability inclusion, workforce conditions, governance, and sustainability. Overall, the findings reinforce the understanding that childcare is not only a social welfare service, but also essential economic infrastructure.