Tackling childcare in a global pandemic

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Schools and childcare centers are vital not only for children's teaching, health, and social development, but are also critical for the economy to function. Without them, parents would not be able to participate fully in the labor force. Since the outset of the COVID-nineteen pandemic, nigh countries temporarily or indefinitely closed schools. Thousands of childcare centers effectually the globe besides closed their doors, in some cases permanently. At the summit of lockdowns in April 2020, 91 percent of students worldwide were shut out of their classrooms, downwards to 61 percent today. This childcare crisis threatens to exacerbate gender inequalities in the labor market. Caregiving responsibilities unduly fall on women, who were already spending 4.five hours a mean solar day on unpaid work before the pandemic while men spent less than half of that fourth dimension. The unpaid labor gap between mothers and fathers has likely only been widened by the spread of the virus. Unless fathers participate equally in childcare, and employers and governments tackle the childcare crisis head-on, women'due south careers are likely to suffer.

What are policymakers doing?

The World Banking concern Group's Women, Business and the Law project is exploring how policymakers are addressing the childcare crisis during the pandemic. In our preliminary findings we have identified three types of support. Showtime, introducing childcare leave for working parents is one of the most popular measures among the few countries that have acted to address the childcare crunch. This policy, by and large reserved for formal sector workers, can provide job security for parents who must care for their children in the absenteeism of regular childcare or school.

Examples of childcare leave policies introduced during COVID-19 pandemic

A second mensurate is to ensure childcare services remain available during lockdowns. Most childcare services however available during lockdowns are intended for exclusive apply by essential workers, every bit is the case in Canada and Singapore. Commonwealth of australia made childcare free for all parents for three months, keeping childcare centers open up during the lockdown. However, the end of this temporary measure out presented new challenges for working parents.

3rd, enhancing or introducing fiscal subsidies specifically for childcare due to COVID-19 school and daycare restrictions are also somewhat prevalent. In Malta, for instance, parents can receive weekly financial aid from the authorities for childcare. In Poland, parents are given an boosted 14 days of childcare allowance while school and daycare facilities are closed due to the virus. In Italy, parents may receive babysitting vouchers. Some governments are also supporting the childcare industry itself. The United kingdom, for instance, has appear that many childcare centers will not have to pay whatever business organization rates, a blazon of holding taxation, from 2020 to 2021.

How can employers support employees with childcare responsibilities?

Equally COVID-19 continues to widen gender gaps and exacerbate the global care crisis, employers can play an important role to ensure the wellbeing of their employees and their families.

Investing in the wellbeing and productivity of working parents now can contribute to building and retaining a more resilient and skilled workforce, ensure business organization sustainability, and enable lasting recovery mail service-COVID-19.

The International Finance Corporation published Childcare in the COVID-19 Era: A Guide for Employers in the wake of the pandemic to help employers take activeness during these difficult and uncertain times.

The guide outlines several ways in which employers tin can support parents, including understanding and complying with authorities directives and guidance on childcare, parental and family leave, such as the ones described in a higher place. Employers may as well consult their employees and assess whether their existing workplace policies are helping them and their families. In case there are gaps in support, employers may consider adapting existing policies or creating new ones, if needed.

Employers can also directly support their employees and the communities in which they operate in many ways:

  • Provide childcare services to essential workers, such equally those in healthcare, when immune and feasible. For example, IFC customer Creative Milliners, a garment-manufacturing firm based in Pakistan, recently announced that it will allow children of essential services staff, including healthcare professionals and constabulary enforcement officials, to use its childcare facility in Karachi free of accuse—after like-minded to follow strict health and safety protocols. Initially, 20 children will be accommodated at the childcare center.
  • Enable home-based work (HBW) in the sectors and job roles where this is possible
  • Offer flexible work options, fifty-fifty during HBW. These may include flexible hours/shifts, reduced hours, staggered commencement and finish times, telecommuting, and remote work from a different location, among others
  • Allow staff to have additional family unit go out, preferably paid, in light of school and daycare closures and family disease
  • Offer mental health support to employees likewise as parent back up workshops during the crunch. Keep employees up to date with the latest information on the pandemic to minimize the spread of misinformation and provide guidance on accessing health information and benefits.
  • Provide piece of cake-to-utilise resource to help employees keep their children learning and engaged while out of school/childcare; many free resource exist online and can be converted to difficult copy materials in instances where access to engineering may be an issue.
  • Demonstrate kindness, pity, and flexibility while engaging with all employees, including working parents who are in many instances juggling extra childcare responsibilities forth with home-based work and may crave more time and effort to complete tasks.

Working together

The impact that this pandemic could take on the prospects of working women, now and in the future, cannot be minimized. Given the sizeable contributions women's labor force participation makes to many economies, policy responses that do non back up caregiving during this fourth dimension are unlikely to restore economies to their quondam capacities any time soon. A concerted response by both government and the private sector to COVID-19 that serves to ease childcare obligations will ensure that the pandemic does not drive masses of women out of the workforce. It will also ensure that progress made towards gender parity in economic inclusion doesn't become another victim of this virus.

Authors

Katya El Tayeb

Rudaba Zehra Nasir

Global Lead for Tackling Childcare and Women's Employment, IFC Gender Secretariat

Katrin Schulz

Private Sector Development Specialist, World Bank Grouping