Investments in early childhood development centres in Zanzibar are unlocking women's earning power

Munira Abdallah Abdallah in front of the childcare centre. Photo: UN Women/Hanna Mtango

Every morning, Munira Abdallah Abdallah wakes up early to prepare breakfast for her family and gets her two-year-old grandchild ready for the day. After dropping him off at a daycare centre, she sets out on a three-kilometer walk to the ocean, where she cultivates sea moss.

At age 44, Abdallah is a mother of six and a grandmother, living in Muungoni, a small village located in the southern region of Zanzibar, Tanzania. She learned sea moss farming at 17, but had to stop working after having her first child.

This year, Abdallah heard about a new childcare centre established by the local government, UN Women Tanzania, and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). "At the time, an opportunity came up to start farming sea moss again through my women’s savings and credit cooperative. I’m my grandson’s primary caretaker, because my daughter works hours away, so the childcare centre gave me the chance to take him somewhere I can trust, while I earn an income," she explained.

In Zanzibar, the sea moss sector employs over 23,000 residents, the majority of whom are women. These women often spend up to six hours a day cultivating sea moss, which often requires mothers to leave their young children with a neighbour or bring them along to their worksite.

For Abdallah and many other women in the community, the childcare centre has been a game-changer.

"There are so many benefits," she says with a smile. "I can focus fully on my work, knowing my grandchild is well taken care of.”

Abdallah also highlights the safety the centre provides, noting, "We often hear about cases of violence against children, so knowing they are in a safe place with trained caretakers makes a big difference."

 UN Women addresses women’s unpaid care work

The childcare centre in Muungoni is one of three established by UN Women through the UN Joint Programme on Accelerating Progress towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JPRWEE), a multi-country initiative implemented with FAO, IFAD, and WFP to secure rural women's livelihoods, rights, and resilience.

Located in a building allocated by the Muungoni local government authority, the centre that Abdallah relies on is part of UN Women’s efforts to address the disproportionate unpaid care and domestic responsibilities that women face in Tanzania, spending three times as many hours as men on these tasks.

"These centres are vital to our commitment to creating supportive environments for women to pursue their livelihoods," says UN Women’s Programme Specialist on Women’s Economic Empowerment, Lilian Mwamdanga. "By providing this essential service, we significantly reduce the time that women like Munira spend on unpaid care responsibilities, allowing them to engage in income-earning activities, while ensuring that their children are well cared for.”

According to Kikuba Khamis Mcha, who works as a caretaker at the Muungoni childcare centre, the centre now has 20 children enrolled, ranging from six months to five years old. Parents can drop off their children for up to five hours on weekdays.

“Since the majority of the mothers are sea moss farmers, we care for the children during their working hours from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.,” says Mcha, who has been an early childhood educator for 26 years. As a former sea moss farmer herself, she understands the challenges the mothers face and emphasizes that providing a service that frees up their time to earn an income makes a significant difference.

 Expanding Women's Economic Opportunities

In addition to interventions to reduce, recognize and redistribute women’s unpaid care and domestic work, under the joint programme, UN Women Tanzania is implementing targeted initiatives in Zanzibar, Dodoma, and Singida to expand women’s economic opportunities. These efforts advocate for increased access to land and agricultural resources for women, training women entrepreneurs to process, package and market their products, improving their access to financing and markets, and strengthening the leadership and agency of rural women, particularly through Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs). These are local cooperatives through which women can collectively save and lend to each other.

As a result of these efforts in Zanzibar, more than 3,000 community members have been reached through awareness-raising efforts to support and advance women's economic empowerment and women's access to and ownership of land and resources. Additionally, nearly 900 rural women were trained in entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills. Today, 60 village savings and loan associations are helping over 900 women save and access loans to start small businesses. Two women leaders’ networks were established in the seaweed, sardines and horticulture value chains, and now women have a say in decisions. s. Some 300 women have also received gas cooking stoves at a subsidized cost to reduce the time they spend on cooking and fetching firewood.

These days, Abdalla is looking forward to expanding her sea moss business. “I want to go beyond farming and selling sea moss to producing sea moss gel, soap, and other products that could fetch me a higher price,” she said.

For her, she says, the centre is more than just a childcare facility—it is a vital resource that empowers her to contribute to her family’s well-being.

The Muungoni local government authority recognizes the value of the childcare centre and plans to continue operating it beyond the life of the joint programme.