Guatemala:
Community Day Care Center Program Evaluation
PURPOSE
This study was an evaluation of the Community Day Care Centers Program (Hogares Comunitarios Program) (HCP) supported by the Government of Guatemala. It was a collaborative effort with IFPRI's Gender and Intra-household Aspects of Food Policy Multi-Country Program.
The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation and the impact of the Program on children's nutrition and on their mothers' wages and employment opportunities.
BACKGROUND
Women who live in marginalized urban areas are under increased pressure to work outside the home in income-generating activities, and thus the scarcity of childcare alternatives can be a severe constraint to their household's livelihood, food and nutrition security. In an effort to alleviate these constraints, in 1991 the Hogares Comunitarios Program (HCP) was created as a means of providing a non-traditional childcare alternative. In this program a group of parents select a woman from the neighborhood and designate her as the care provider (madre cuidadora). She then provides care, hygiene and food, in return for a small stipend shared between the parents and the program administration.
Between 1998 and 2000, IFPRI carried out an evaluation of HCP. The evaluation included both an operations (process) and an impact evaluation. It was carried out in urban slums of Guatemala City, which at the time, hosted approximately 25 percent of the program's day care centers (hogares) operating in the country.
RESEARCH
Project Leader: Marie Ruel
- The program is generally well designed and well appreciated by its users - (beneficiary families), and its main implementers (the day care providers).
- The quality of implementation at the level of the day care centers is acceptable overall, but large variations exist between care providers.
- Care providers are generally satisfied with the program and appreciate the opportunity to work at home while taking care of their own children. They however feel overwhelmed and insufficiently trained and remunerated.
- Beneficiary parents are very pleased with the program and report that the program is affordable and provides them with highly needed support. Low parent participation in program activities is widespread.
- Develop activities to promote greater participation of parents and communities
- Consider hiring specially trained staff to assist care providers in their work and to strengthen the psycho-pedagogical activities
- Include a health component in the package of interventions to promote overall child health, development and well-being
- Strengthen the training and re-training of care providers to ensure high quality services and responsible caring behaviors.
- The program appears to be reaching its targeted audience - families of working parents with poor resources, and particularly, families where mothers are the main income generator.
- The program is having a positive impact on children's nutrient intake and dietary diversity: children participating in the program consume on average 20 percent more energy and 50 percent more of some key micronutrients than control children.
- Beneficiary mothers are more likely than working mothers using other child care arrangements to work in the formal sector, to receive work-related social and medical benefits, and their income is 30% higher.
- The program is one of the cheapest childcare arrangements available in the area, even compared to informal alternatives involving household members or extended family members.
OPERATIONS EVALUATION
The evaluation of the implementation and operational aspects of the program was carried out in approximately 200 day care centers in three zones of Guatemala City. The research approaches included semi-structured interviews with care providers, 8-hour structured observations in the day care centers, and focus groups with beneficiary parents and child care providers.
Key Findings of the Operations Evaluation:
Recommendations for strengthening the program's implementation and operations:
IMPACT EVALUATION
The impact evaluation was carried out in one zone of Guatemala City and included both a case-control design of approximately 250 beneficiary children matched with control children, and a random sample of approximately 1,400 households with children 0-7 years of age.
Key findings of the impact evaluation:
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
- The government-sponsored day care program in Guatemala provides affordable and reliable care for extended hours, thereby providing needed support to vulnerable households - namely women-headed households.
- Evidence from our evaluation suggests that this type of program relieves an important constraint to women's labor force participation in urban areas while at the same time improving children's nutrition.
- Expansion and strengthening of this type of program could be an important strategy to reduce food insecurity and poverty among vulnerable urban households.
ON-GOING DEVELOPMENTS
Data collection for the study concluded in 1999. Data analysis started in 2000 and is still on going. Findings from the operational evaluation have been presented. Reports summarizing preliminary findings from the impact evaluation will be published soon.
Findings from the evaluation of the Community Day Care program in Guatemala became available at the time a new administration took over the program in early 2000. Key findings from our operational evaluation in particular, were used extensively to develop the 4-year action plan of the new administration to strengthen the program.
COLLABORATORS
- Hogares Comunitarios Program of the Secretary of Social Works of the First Lady of Guatemala (SOSEP)
- Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP)
DONORS
PUBLICATIONS
- Living in the City: Challenges and Options for the Urban Poor. IFPRI Issue Brief No. 9. Washington D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. 2002.
- Guatemala -- The Community Day Care Centers Program. IFPRI Issue Brief No. 9 Addendum. Washington D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. 2002.
- Does Subsidized Childcare Help Poor Working Women in Urban Areas? Evaluation of a Government-Sponsored Program in Guatemala City. Marie T. Ruel, Bénédicte de la Brière, Kelly Hallman, Agnes Quisumbing, and Nora Coj. FCND Discussion Paper 131. 2002.
- Do Subsidized Childcare Programs Work? An Operational Evaluation in Guatemala City. Marie Ruel. Food and Agriculture Organization Journal. 2002.
- Does Subsidized Childcare Help Poor Working Women in Urban Areas? Evaluation of a Government-Sponsored Program in Guatemala City. Marie Ruel, Bénédicte de Brière, Kelly Hallman, Agnes Quisumbing, and N. Coj. Taking Gender Into Account in Social Protection and Poverty Programs: Case Studies form Latin America. The World Bank. 2002.
- Evaluación Operacional del Programa de Hogares Comunitarios de Guatemala. Marie Ruel. Unpublished work. 2001.
- Operational Evaluation of the Hogares Comunitarios Program of Guatemala. Marie Ruel. Unpublished work. 2001.
- Operations Evaluation of the "Community Day Care Program" in Guatemala. Marie Ruel, Bénédicte de Brière and Kelly Hallman. FASEB J 14 (4): A504 (Abstract #356.15). 2000.
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