The impact of Early Childhood Care and Development services on Women’s empowerment in Albania Table of Contents
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- III. Women’s empowerment, child care and child development
II. PresentationThis document presents an analysis on how the existing ECD programmes and services in Albania affect or not vulnerable women’s empowerment. It looks into coverage and quality issues, differences in service provision depending on demographic conditions, ethnicity and other life circumstances such as children with disabilities. For the purposes of this study, women’s empowerment is defined as: 1. Women’s employability coming as: i) a result of women having the possibility to work because children are taken care of in an ECD center, ii) women, because they have free time as children are in ECD centers, participate in ECD community participation events, different capacity building, counseling, vocational training etc., which in turn are translated to an increased role in decision making in the family, society etc. as well as to more employability” (Terms of Reference for an international consultant to help coordinate, supervise and implement an assessment on the impact of ECD services on women’s empowerment. UNICEF 2012); and 2. Women’s role in family and community understood as: i) creation and utilization of social networks, ii) lowering levels of abuse and domestic violence against women, iii) enhancing women’s voices in the community and iv) raising women’s participation in decision making in the household. The document is divided into seven sections, besides the introduction and presentation. The first section presents an international analysis of child care and its relationship with women in the labor market and gives some examples of what different countries have adopted as policies in this regard; the second section presents the methodology used by the ground team to collect the information; the third includes contextual information on Albania, Albanian women and children and their rights; the fourth presents a description of Albanian services for children under 6 years of age; the fifth is a description of the results of the field work; the sixth contains a final discussion and analysis of the results and finally the seventh section contains final remarks and a set of recommendations for the Albanian Government. III. Women’s empowerment, child care and child developmentWomen’s empowerment, understood as women’s employability and active role in the community and family, started to take place a couple of decades ago6. For the majority of, and until half way through the twentieth century, legislation, policies and programming in the vast majority of countries stated that women’s role in society was that of household caring and children upbringing7. This changed abruptly and women’s active role in politics, social change and labor market has changed family and social paradigms rooted in many societies around the globe. Women’s participation in the labor market has led to a decrease of the number of children being born, the tendency to marry later in life, increase in household salaries, and a return to work earlier after childbirth. Amongst the many social and economic effects this trend has on families and society in general, childcare becomes an issue. If mothers leave the household to go to work, multiple questions arise: Who is taking care of the younger children? Are there services available to leave the children for some hours during the day? Who pays for these services? What happens to the poor or vulnerable women who cannot afford them? Different authors have analyzed this issue and research has been done in many countries around the world. There are various approaches to this issue. The two which are the most relevant for this study are: i) the need for women to be in the labor market, even if they have small children and ii) the need to strengthen families so that women can stay at home during the first years of their children’s lives. Both positions are relevant, have strong empirical evidence that support them and there are policies and programmes that incentive both in different countries. Bringing mothers into the labor market soon after giving birth requires specific legislation and policy changes that, for instance, makes it mandatory for children to attend ECD services from age 3 months to 5 years. In order for this to happen, ECD services have to be universal and flexible so mothers and fathers can choose whatever they find most suitable to their needs in terms of schedules, availability of food for the children within the service and proximity to their households8. One of the reasons for mothers of young children to stay away from the labor market is the cost of these services. High costs or any costs for poorer families, discourage families from sending their children to preschool or other ECD services9. Therefore families tend to look for alternatives for childcare such as leaving older siblings in charge, which does not necessarily represent the safest and most convenient option for the child. In countries like Holland and the United Kingdom, economic incentives are given by the government to parents who enroll their younger children in ECD services. Given the high costs of these and the percentage they represent of the monthly household expenditure in both countries, 30% and 60% respectively, these types of interventions have successfully resulted in bringing mothers of young children into the workforce. From an economic perspective Lokshin, Glinskaya, and Garcia (2000) stated “Thus, well-targeted ECD programs may be seen as optimal economic investments that affect both the current and future welfare of households with small children”10. Additional factors like having strong family networks, especially those who live in proximity to families with younger children also affect the level of women’s participation in the labor market, giving them another possibility of leaving their children to be taken care of by people they trust11. The other global tendency that is being adopted by some countries is the effort to keep mothers away from the labor market during the first years of the baby’s life. Studies show that the quality of the relationship between parents and babies during those first years impact significantly on the developmental process of the child. For example, the bond created between mother and child through breastfeeding during the first two years is fundamental for the wellbeing of the child, as it strengthens the child’s ability to develop appropriately socially and emotionally, makes him more independent, reduces the probability of child abuse, violence and abandonment12. Countries such as France and Finland give economic incentives for mothers who stay in the home taking care of their younger children. Finland established this policy in 1986 and since then women’s participation in the labor market dropped significantly. Currently, 60% of Finnish children under the age of 2 stay at home with their mothers or fathers13. In other countries like Denmark and Sweden policies are oriented towards equity between mothers and fathers providing subsidies to both depending on their salaries and giving extended periods of maternity leave for both which each couple can arrange accordingly to their needs14. The dilemma of which approach to pursue, should be studied and analyzed by each government accordingly to its socio-economic context and situation. Whatever route a country decides to undertake, must always prioritize the best interest of the child and understand that children’s rights exceed the rights of the rest of the population. Therefore ECD services and all policies directed to family and gender must have a starting point that is the human rights perspective, prioritizing children. From this perspective, early childhood development has to be approached in a holistic and intersectoral way: holistic, because childhood development is multidimensional and dynamic. It is not sufficient that children are well nourished if their caretakers do not have the necessary skills and capacities to take care of them, or if they do not have the adequate vaccinations in accordance to their needs and age. In order to achieve an integral development, children must have all their needs fulfilled and rights guaranteed. Inter-sectoral, because not all services are nor should be the responsibility of one sector or institution. This means that actions and interventions directed to families and communities to address the needs and uphold the rights of children between the ages 0-6 years old, have to be implemented by all different social sectors through coordinated and integral actions. Interventions in early childhood have to consider all environments where children spend their time while they are growing up and developing. These include: at home, at the institutional level (educational facilities, health facilities) and in the community. Here is where mothers and the protective environment of the families are key actors for empowerment and to achieve the integral development of children and a better quality of life. Empirical evidence in Latin American countries, shows that family plays a key role in the empowerment of women as well in the development process of children. The male figure becomes very relevant as well as the social network that women have around them in order for them to be employed, run errands, go to trainings or even go to the doctor. So whether children are to stay at home with their mothers or go to an ECD service, the focus has to be on assuring quality of both types of care. There seems to be a tendency in developing countries to invest more in qualifying ECD services and aiming for universal coverage, given the need for economic growth and development, than to give incentives to families to stay at home during the early years of their children’s lives. This seems to be the case of Albania, where the legal framework and policy development on gender and ECD policies have been developing at a very fast pace in the last years. In these types of contexts, it becomes even more relevant that ECD services comply with the elements of coverage, quality and that these are implemented in a holistic and intersectoral way. Directory: albania albania -> Communications strategy albania -> Various structural reforms in albania Download 247.72 Kb. Share with your friends:
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