A new Foreign Policy series hosted by Reena Ninan about women creating change through economic empowerment. You’ll learn about a new approach to affordable childcare in Kenya, increasing awareness about women working informally in India, and women challenging gender dynamics within their homes in Uganda, among others. HER is a Foreign Policy production with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
HER listeners can learn more about these topics by signing up for special access to an FP Analytics policy brief on gender equality. Sign up by clicking here.
Reena Ninan is the founder of Good Trouble Productions. She is a television journalist who has worked as a White House correspondent, foreign reporter, and news anchor for CBS, ABC, and Fox News.
Creating Affordable, High-Quality Child Care—Lessons from Kenya
As FP Analytics highlights in its new report, “Elevating Gender Equality in COVID-19 Economic Recovery,” there’s a dire global child care shortage, which the pandemic only worsened. But increasing COVID-19 recovery plan investments in care work—especially the child care sector—would deliver greater and more sustainable stimulus than other measures, such as construction-oriented funding. Still, even if more governments better support the care sector, how does one launch high-quality, affordable child care centers in the near future?
On the premiere episode of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women (or HER for short), host Reena Ninan speaks with Kidogo co-founder Sabrina Habib about how she created a new approach to franchising affordable child care centers that has changed the lives of low-income mothers and female day care owners in Kenya. Habib describes how almost stepping on a baby in a day care center was a “moment of obligation” for her to make a difference. Then, Ninan hears about the state of early childhood development in Kenya from African Population and Health Research Center associate research scientist Patricia Wekulo.
The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.