| 1 | Understanding the landscape of childcare coverage and demand | We still know relatively little about basic service coverage, as well as what factors matter for demand and take-up of services across contexts—which is the first step in stocktaking where, what and how to make ‘fit for purpose’ and locally adapted investments | What is the coverage of childcare services and childcare models at the national, regional and local levels, including traditional forms of kinship and family-based care—and how is this changing over time? What factors affect market demand for childcare services, including supply-side aspects (eg, service models, quality, accessibility, flexibility, costs, perceived trust in providers) across diverse target populations (eg, rural vs urban, family structure, socio-economic, ethnic diversity, workers in formal vs informal employment)? What are the main barriers to uptake of childcare, including the role of gender norms or costs, and how can these be reduced or equalised via messaging, targeting of subsidies (including sliding scales), system linkages or location of services, among others? What are the opportunities to develop a standardised module or iterations of context-specific modules of childcare model coverage, as well as indicators of demand and barriers, to integrate into routine data collection at the national or regional level?
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| 2 | Unpacking ‘what works’ for whom over time | We have few rigorous studies examining what works for different service models and populations in relation to a broad range of impact outcomes, particularly beyond the child-level | What are the impacts of access to childcare services on children, women and families—in relation to existing models of traditional kinship or family-based care? Continued measurement of women’s economic empowerment is needed, including engagement in the labour market, earnings, quality of work, financial resiliency and other economic status outcomes. In addition, of particular interest are under-researched areas: Are there impacts on children’s safety and development, women’s mental health and emotional well-being, intra-household outcomes including time use trade-offs (including for older siblings) and outcomes for men, including on gender attitudes and norms? Are there potential negative or adverse effects across different levels, particularly in settings where children accrue benefits from traditional forms of family-based care? What are the behavioural underpinnings or mechanisms leading to these impacts, setting the foundations for understanding generalisability across settings? How do impacts evolve over time, particularly beyond the short term (<12 months)?
How do impacts vary by target populations which may be less-well placed to benefit from childcare (eg, children with disabilities, refugees or displaced populations) or have greater need (eg, single and/or adolescent mothers, informal workers, families with chronically ill or disabled prime age adults)? How do we trade-off impacts across different service models, including but not limited to: institutional vs residential models, part-time vs full time care (flexible), models that incorporate early childhood education or other plus components (gender norm social behaviour change, safe transport, infant and child health)?
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| 3 | Building knowledge on implementation of scalable solutions | There is high value in opening up the ‘black box’ of implementation to understand both how to best support childcare workers, as well as ensure quality for children and families | What are promising models to train, support and finance childcare workers, as well as facilitate their visibility and ability to organise to protect their rights? What measurement tools can be used to monitor and assess quality of childcare, including availability of infrastructure, compliance with regulations, quality of workforce, child development (objective measures) and engagement—as well as collect parent satisfaction with services (subjective measures)? What are barriers and challenges to quality and successful implementation of childcare services across contexts, including the tension between quality vs capacity vs accessibility of childcare centres, particularly in high-risk or informal environments (eg, informal settlement and slum areas, informal work places, post-disaster, displacement settings, pandemics and other health emergencies)? What promising strategies and implementation models encourage involvement and engagement of men in childcare?
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| 4 | Answering macro-questions on policy, financing, systems and sustainability | A policy view will facilitate real-time advice and advocacy towards a systems-level approach and coordination for sustainable childcare | What political economy factors influence and facilitate the adoption of childcare policies, regulatory frameworks and standards and financial commitment by governments? What is the ‘return on investment’ of childcare and how can sustainable financing be obtained to make sufficient investments in quality childcare for all? What by-laws and regulatory frameworks are needed to support local government to regulate childcare providers—with attention to context-appropriate models considering the living and working conditions of informal workplaces? How can childcare systems be linked and integrated (or coordinated) with complementary family-friendly systems and policies, both care-focused (eg, family leave, care for elderly)—as well as other sectors, including early child development and education? What is the role of formal sector firms in childcare provision for employees and in building the childcare workforce?
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