Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation(ACT)
Counties of implementation: Nairobi, Kisumu & Kakamega County
Donor: Global Affairs Canada
Project period: March 2024
The Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation (ACT) project is a four-year collaborative initiative funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented in Kenya and Malawi with World University Services of Canada as the lead partner. The project aims to transform paid childcare work from a job of last resort into a vocation of choice, a dignified, fairly compensated, and recognized profession. ACT adopts a systems-based, gender-transformative, and locally driven approach to improving conditions for women in the paid childcare sector and unlocking its potential as a catalyst for economic empowerment.
The Action for Paid Care (ACT) project seizes this momentum by taking a systems approach to strengthen women’s economic empowerment. It focuses on women who work in or run childcare microenterprises and those providing domestic care services, particularly for children aged 0–5 years, within the paid care economy.
As a feminist women’s rights organization, COVAW plays a central role in ensuring that the ACT project in Kenya is informed by context-specific feminist principles. Drawing on a strong legacy in gender justice, legal advocacy, community mobilization, and movement building, COVAW works to ensure that the voices, rights, and lived realities of women in the paid childcare sector are recognized, respected, and prioritized.
Key Outcome Areas
- Strengthening coordination among women childcare providers and their networks.
- Facilitating government engagement to design and implement gender-responsive childcare policies.
- Supporting training systems to professionalize the childcare workforce and enhance service quality.
- Promoting accountability among ecosystem actors to uphold the rights of women childcare providers.
- Enhancing the capacity of financial and business service providers to meet the specific needs of women in the paid childcare sector.
