As South Africa marks National Women’s Day 2022, it is important to realise how pivotal early childhood development (ECD) centres are to realising the economic potential of the country and its women, says Sihle Mooi of ForAfrika, the continent’s largest indigenous non-governmental organisation.
Focusing on the economic significance of ECD centres ties in with the government’s chosen theme for this year’s Women’s Month, “Women’s Socio-economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience”, says Mooi, ForAfrika’s South Africa country director.
ECD centres can have a threefold impact on the daily lives of South Africa’s women, especially those who live in the townships and rural areas, he adds. They can provide employment, be places where low-skilled women gain marketable skills, and they can free women to go out and earn an income.
“ECDs are neglected places of employment and economic development in townships and rural areas. Many crèches are viable women-owned businesses, some employing up to 12 women, yet these are not recognised as businesses dominating the township economy landscape. For example, the township of Alexandra, in Johannesburg, has more than 600 ECD centres, but none is registered with Alex’s two chambers of commerce,” says Mooi.
The 2021 Women’s Report, edited by Professor Anita Bosch of the Stellenbosch Business School, tells us that 300 000 people are employed in ECDs, 95% of them women, says Mooi.
For each woman caring for children, another six to 10 women are able to take up full-time employment. This means investment in ECDs would deliver a triple socio-economic benefit:
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Improving the chances that South Africa’s children can reach their full potential through improved nutrition in their first five years
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Allowing women more freedom to participate in the economy
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Creating more and better-paid jobs in the care economy
ForAfrika is working with ECD centres to ensure they are formally registered with the government so that they can access state subsidies, which can lead to the centres providing improved care for the children under their care, says Mooi.
The organisation is also collaborating with ECD centres to ensure that those who run them are better trained, and so that they grow in scale and can be replicated across the country.
“This will also improve our tax base and will help reduce levels of gender-based violence by giving women more economic freedom. As President Cyril Ramaphosa said in 2020, gender-based violence is a pandemic in South Africa and up to 40% of South African women have experienced sexual and/or physical intimate partner violence in their lifetime. We must all do what we can to end the pandemic of gender-based violence,” says Mooi.
“The training I received really helped me with running an ECD,” says Deliwe Segodi, who runs an ECD centre that serves nearly 50 children in the Thembelihle Local Municipality in the Northern Cape. Through ForAfrika, Segodi has graduated with a higher certificate in ECD at level five.
“There are four of us, three teachers including me, and a cook,” says Segodi, whose mother started the ECD centre in 1995 and who took up the principalship in 2008. “Through the training, I’m better at lesson planning and I have learned to supervise the other staff and do appraisals [of their performance]. I didn’t know [that I should] do that before.”
ForAfrika has a footprint in all nine provinces, in some of the most remote and underserved areas. The organisation works with more than 3 000 ECDs. Through this network, ForAfrika also provides food, clean water and sanitation to approximately 120 000 children up to the age of four, daily.
“This is a significant number, but a drop in the ocean in terms of what’s needed,” says Mooi.
In addition to teaching skills, women who work at ECDs can learn how to effectively manage gardens that produce fresh produce for the children’s consumption, and for sale.
“When more ECDs are strengthened to be viable businesses, they will employ more women and youth, reducing unemployment, poverty, gender-based violence and improving our tax base. When more ECDs have and run community gardens and train women and youths in how to grow vegetables and fruit for sale, they will also reduce the worrying levels of malnutrition and stunting in South Africa,” he says.
“I believe that ForAfrika is well placed in South Africa, in terms of capacity and reach, to be a catalyst for the kind of systemic change that can be effected through ECDs, addressing women’s lower rates of employment, their need for skills development and their overall empowerment.”
