KENYA: Urban Women and Children Bear the Brunt of Climate Change

In Nairobi's informal settlements, women childcare providers navigate challenges from climate change and rising food prices.

Our climate change actions must begin and end with women.

One afternoon in December 2022, I sat in the rear seat of a taxi ferrying me to a meeting with women childcare providers in one of the vast urban informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. The heat was excessive, and I kindly requested the driver open the car windows. It was so uncomfortable that after a few minutes in the car, I was already sweating and almost finding it difficult to breathe. I reached out for my phone and was just about to take a selfie when I saw an image that still haunts me so much that I decided to write this piece to awaken our conscience. 

Inside my phone’s camera, I saw the face of a woman who was beaten and exhausted, worrying about how our childcare food program was going to survive the ever-soaring food prices. That was me. I tried to smile, but I couldn’t. With the uncomfortable heat and sweat, I hated our country's situation more. Until April 2023, Kenya experienced severe drought fueled by four failed rainfall seasons, reported by United Nations agencies as the worst in 40 years. 

On this day, however, the reality of our situation as a women-led childcare food initiative hit me hard and left me fighting back tears because I did not want to alert the taxi driver about my worries. You see, in April 2022, having conducted three years of research to understand the challenges that prevented women-led childcare enterprises in Nairobi’s informal settlements from growing and thriving, I narrowed down access to food for children as the main factor that limits their economic viability. This is because, while most female child caregivers provide childcare services at $0.5, many are forced to use this same income to provide food for the children, despite clearly agreeing with parents that they would bring packed food. As a result, women childcare providers are constantly in a cycle of unending financial poverty propelled by insufficient food for children left under their care. After consultations with more than 100 of them, we agreed that food for children was their top-most priority, which, if addressed, would help improve the viability of their micro-enterprises. 

Providing food in informal, high-density neighborhoods can be difficult because many people are often hungry. The food won’t reach the intended beneficiaries if not implemented with care. Owing to the increased cost of cooking fuel due to macroeconomic factors and limitations in time and space for cooking, we established that most female child caregivers use their childcare income to buy cheap food for children from street food vendors. Although rarely nutritionally balanced, the women at least try to allocate $0.2 for food per child who comes without a packed lunch. The result is young children’s health and development being compromised every day. However, buying that basic rice and soup combo for the children helps the women survive the nightmare of 10 to 20 toddlers crying because of hunger until their mothers come to collect them in the evening. 

Together with 20 women childcare providers, who mainly operate out of their homes and church halls, we agreed that partnering with the local women's food vendors was the ideal, affordable, and sustainable solution for their challenging situation. In return, they would talk to parents, often single mothers who do odd informal jobs to provide for their families, to accept to pay an extra $0.2 for food and $0.1 for porridge. Through a series of meetings and consultations with the women and local leaders, we identified a group of five women street food vendors who would prepare clean, suitable food for the children and deliver it to the childcare facilities while still fresh and warm. Subsequently, we conducted cooking experiments with the women to establish food costs, suitable portions for children ages 1-3, viable meal plans, and overhead costs such as labor and delivery. With these careful steps and various terms and conditions established, we began the childcare food program in October 2022, intending to feed 300 young children per day in the pilot phase before we could gradually increase the numbers to reach more children in other childcare and Early Childhood Education centers. 

At first, we thought the food situation in the country would change for the better and make our women-led childcare food initiative profitable. Every Friday afternoon, the women would gather to review the food service, suggest improvements, and make meal payments. They were all pleased with a newfound optimism about their childcare businesses, fueled by their ability to save some of their child-care income instead of using it on food (the food cost was now shifted to parents). The women started a Savings and Lending group. Since most of them are not banked, the women childcare providers’ most effective route to gaining financial freedom is through community-based microfinance groups, such as the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) model. With skills acquired through training from various non-governmental organizations, the women easily formed a VSLA group to save their hard-earned childcare income and readily access micro-loans every Friday. 

It was gratifying to watch the women run and grow their savings from a weekly average of $1 per member to a cumulative total of more than $200 within a short time. At last, we were on the verge of proving that economic viability for informal childcare enterprises could be achieved by solving the childcare food challenge. This would create a clear pathway for accelerating the growth of the enterprises and guaranteeing affordable childcare so that more mothers could go to work. 

However, that Friday afternoon, I wondered what to tell the 25 women entrepreneurs because our numbers were not good. Food prices kept increasing at such a high rate that we could start the week with a cost of $1/kg of rice and close it with a price of $1.5/kg. Unlike rice, where the government applied tax subsidies to encourage importation, maize flour (a staple for Kenyans) was the worst affected. At the time, the government declared that the most sustainable way to reduce the cost of maize flour was for the rains to start, upon which farmers would be supplied with subsidized fertilizer to boost the harvest. In the few months since we had done our food experimentation to establish viability, the price of maize flour had increased by more than 70%. At this point, even government leaders felt the most hopeful way was to ask the nation to pray for the rains!

But a hungry person, much less a child, cannot pray for rainfall or an end to drought. As I gathered myself to enter the community social hall venue for our afternoon meeting, I resolved to ensure that our childcare food initiative continued despite the rising food prices, even if this meant digging deeper into my pockets. Yet, I knew this would only be sustainable in the long run if the rains came and farmers could finally supply food like maize, vegetables, and fruits at more affordable prices. 

Our country recently experienced its first successful rainfall season in April 2023, prompting the Ministry of Agriculture’s Principal Secretary to estimate that 43 million bags of maize would be harvested, thereby lowering prices for maize flour. However, uncertainty in weather patterns and food insecurity still hangs over us. 

The impact of climate change on children’s health and development, fueled by droughts that are causing food and water shortages, thereby increasing cases of malnutrition and water-related diseases, cannot continue to be underestimated. Having monitored our micro-data on childcare food and prices over the past year, I know many parents and facilities cannot provide sufficient healthy meals for their children. Yet, as noted by UNICEF, we all know that scientific studies underscore the value of children consuming the right balance of nutrients as a foundation for their healthy brain and physical development, which are crucial for long-term health and productivity. 

There has never been a more urgent call to act now to save our children's lives. And as we act on climate change for their sake, we must not forget that women, the backbone of society’s care systems, bear the burden of it all. Our climate change actions must begin and end with women.

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