By Sangeeta Dey and Shobhana Sosale
Despite robust growth and reduced poverty, the female labour force participation in Sri Lanka remains at a low 36% compared to 75% for men – below international standards.
This number stands in stark contrast with Sri Lanka’s human capital improvements for women, such as high female education levels and low total fertility rates. Leaving many women out of the workforce means that Sri Lanka loses about 20% of its gross domestic product on average.
Access to affordable early childhood care and education (ECCE) directly affects Sri Lanka’s labour force. A 2018 study found that having a child under five years of age reduced a Sri Lankan woman’s participation in the labour force by 7.4% compared with a woman who did not have a young child.
In Sri Lanka, providing affordable childcare services and improving women’s labour force participation are mutually reinforcing, especially as the country prepares its post-Covid-19 recovery strategy.
Well-designed ECCE systems can improve the lives of children, women, and families and provide significant advantages to national economies. Here are three reasons why:
- Expanding quality childcare services benefits mothers as they can seek employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. At the same time, their children are tended to by a nurturing caregiver in a safe, hygienic, and stimulating environment. On the other hand, more childcare centres means a greater need for more trained professional women caregivers, thereby increasing the skilled female labour force in the sector.
- Investment in effective ECCE programmes can help reduce income inequalities between men and women in Sri Lanka. Governments can better tailor programmes to maximise return to investment by understanding the benefits and the likely long-term positive impact of ECCE. Some countries have experimented with success, either partial or full integration of ECCE services.
- ECCE is at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s development. Since 2016, the World Bank has provided significant support through the Early Childhood Development Project to provide equitable access to quality ECCE services. The project seeks to improve teacher training and facilities, and devise assessments for child development, among other activities.