By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Kenya: Women’s participation in the labour market is an important vehicle for increased gender equality and economic empowerment but many challenges stand in the way toward decent work and pay.
One of the key challenges for women in Kenya, as in many low- and middle-income countries, is inadequate childcare support.
According to the International Labour Organisation, women spend triple the amount of time on unpaid care work compared to men, further contributing to wage inequality and lower productivity. Lack of childcare support compounds women’s disadvantage and further exposes them to economic vulnerabilities. COVID-19 fall-out exacerbated this situation.
Now in the tail-end of its second phase, the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) East Africa initiative, jointly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was designed and implemented to find innovative solutions to these challenges and accelerate achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
With a focus on Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, GrOW Phase II – East Africa supported in-country local research to provide new evidence-based information that could then inform policies and actions to help close glaring gender gaps in the marketplace.
The initiative was particularly focused on how unpaid care work negatively impacts women’s access to decent work and their productivity, to the significant amount of time required to execute these duties.
Speaking to science journalists during the workshop held in Nairobi March 5-7, 2025, Annet Abenakyo Mulema, IDRC Kenya stated that GrOW Phase II was about “testing solutions and providing evidence for us to reduce the unpaid care burden.”
“We were testing solutions that would help us get more women into the labor market, especially the young women,” she said. “To achieve this goal, we focused on skills building and work readiness programs. We also tested solutions that could really bring gender equality in government procurement programs.”
The workshop presented an opportunity to share results and insights from all GrOW – East Africa research projects, as well as engage policymakers and stakeholders in discussions on research findings and their potential policy implications. Ultimately, it was a chance to initiate discussions on how to multiply successful interventions and to promote future collaborative research opportunities.
Mulema told journalists that given the fact that culture norms are one of the underlying factors that hinder women’s empowerment, there was a great need to invest in research that facilitates a deeper understanding of cultural norms and solutions on how to shift these cultural barriers.
“In this context, we need solutions to get women and girls out of the confines they have been put in by society so that they too can demonstrate their potential to serve communities,” Mulema said. “So we had a cohort of 15 projects that have been testing these solutions to reduce unpaid care work, advance women’s participation in the labour market and also help women to tap into the government procurement programs.”
During a press briefing at the workshop, Jane Mariara, the Executive Director of the Partnership for Economic Policy, said that all the 15 projects have successfully concluded. Partnership for Economic Policy is an international NGO that focuses on capacity building in research and policy analysis, especially cutting-edge research.
One of the 15 projects is a research study conducted by African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), a research institution and think tank that focuses on population health and wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa. APHRC assessed the effectiveness of a childcare model in Nakuru, Kenya. The project was designed to produce new information to help improve the economic status of women in low-income communities.
Ace Policy Research Institute (APRI) conducted a research project on supporting parenting care-childcare facilities in markets. The project aimed at providing insights on how to reduce unpaid care work for vulnerable businesswomen in Uganda.
According to GrOW-East Africa, as is the case in many countries, women shoulder a heavy and unequal responsibility for unpaid care work in Ethiopia, dedicating over three times as many hours as men to these responsibilities. ChildFund Ethiopia conducted research on empowering women through provision of quality childcare services.
All 15 projects pursued different thematic areas such as changing norms and public perceptions about unpaid care work. The Economic Policy Research Centre’s research topic was, ‘From Promises to Action Shifting gender norms and public perceptions about unpaid care work in Workplaces and Families in Uganda’.
A project on Evaluating the Impact of Holistic Participatory Programs on Reducing and Redistributing Unpaid Care work among Women in Rwanda was conducted by the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research – IPAR-Rwanda.
Oxfam Novib Uganda research project was about Strengthening Capacity for Effective Women Economic Empowerment and Care Work Interventions in Uganda. Policy Studies Institute, Ethiopia conducted research into supporting women economic empowerment. They also looked into policy and care work.
A research project on enhancing women economic empowerment and tackling unpaid care in Ethiopia was implemented by the Includovate Ethiopia. Pro-Femmes Rwanda conducted research on how policy can enhance women’s economic opportunities in Rwanda.
“Some have had what we call national policy conferences where they invited diverse stakeholders, including policy makers and practitioners. But then we needed to bring the teams together again to hear from them about what happened across the 15 projects in the five countries. For instance, how do these projects compare?” Mariara said.
Overall, Mulema stated that GrOW – EA sought to increase the number of policies and programs in East Africa that are informed or influenced by groundbreaking in-country research and evaluation to boost the empowerment of women and girls.
