A regulation aimed at keeping mothers like Asrat Bekele in the workplace is helping Ethiopia’s women build executive careers. Now, the government wants to roll the initiative out further.
Emebet Demeke, bird story agency
It’s the middle of the working day and Asrat Bekele is taking a quick break from her busy schedule. While colleagues may slip away for a coffee or a cigarette, however, Bekele is breastfeeding her nine-month-old baby. She has a quiet space, in a specially created area, to do so.
As head of technical services at the Ethiopia Electricity Utility (EEU), Bekele’s role is an important one and the pressure of constant meetings and deadlines would be enough to wear out most people, never mind breastfeeding mums. Several years ago, however, Ethiopia introduced legislation that obliges state-run companies to provide in-office childcare. As a result, Bekele is able to juggle two roles: top executive and responsible mum.
“The centre has brought me a lot of benefits in raising my daughter,” said Bekele, who has the program to thank for being able to build advance to an executive position in her work without career-ending breaks for child-rearing.
Those words would be manna to Ethiopia’s Minister of Women and Children, Nebiyu Dejene. Dejene worked hard to ensure that the program, introduced in 2017, rolled out across all of Ethiopia’s state-run companies.
“This service is relief for working mothers. Real gender equality will not be achieved if there are no social systems that promote women’s participation in the economy in the government or the private sector. This type of support for the opening of day care centres in the institutions makes it possible to take advantage of the women’s participation in their work,” Dejene explained.
It was Bekele who was responsible for the rollout of the daycare centre at EEU, so she’s been able to make sure it is of the best possible quality.
“Creating a daycare centre helped me to work without any worries. Here, my daughter receives great care for her health and growth, she is given great care and food time; so she grows up with better care,” she said.
For Belaynesh Ashagre, 29, who has been working at the EEU for five years, taking care of her six-month-old child was difficult because she had to work to earn a living and could not find a someone to stay with her baby at home. Her daughter is now among the 20 children in the EEU daycare centre.
“I am very grateful for this opportunity. The center has helped my daughter’s development,” Ashagre said.
Working mothers in the corporate sector in Ethiopia face difficulties in balancing the responsibilities of caring for a newborn and professional life. Many mothers face a choice between leaving their jobs to breastfeed and care for their children or returning to their jobs and leaving their children in the hands of maids.
While Ethiopian working mothers are allowed up to 120 days of paid maternity leave, in the past they were required to find their own daycare services.
Government agencies began establishing childcare centres after the regulation of in-house daycare services by the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs. The regulation can be found in Proclamation No.1064/2017 also known as the Federal Civil Servants Proclamation which was put in place in December 2017 “to improve the conditions of work so that government offices could become competitive through retaining their employees and attracting new entrants.”
The Ethiopian Electric Service (EEU) can currently accommodate up to 20 children at its daycare centre. Centres like the one at EEU are designed to meet the physical and behavioural development needs of children from newborns to three years of age.
“Our office built the daycare center to provide mothers with care and breastfeeding of their children during working hours. The institution established here has qualified babysitters and a nurse hired for the purpose of knowing how to care for children aged six months to five years based on their needs and behaviour. The institution evaluates the quality of the centre’s services over a period of time,” explained Meazagenet Tsegaye, head of the women’s directorate of the Ethiopian Electricity Utility.
Mothers are often expected to stay at home and raise their children in Ethiopia. This discrimination leads to many aspiring working mothers feeling frustrated in their job. Even if they decide to support their careers, finding affordable and accessible childcare is another hurdle to overcome. The situation is worse when the mother is the sole breadwinner, and there is nothing else she can do to take care of her children.
Daycare centres offer an alternative to hiring caregivers or sacrificing work to care for a child. The centres play an important role in meeting the needs of working parents, especially during the first six months of breastfeeding and infant care.
Ethiopia’s government is now calling for the centres to be rolled out at private companies, too. It’s a move that would ensure that the wider society becomes more equitable, according to the minister.
“Support women’s rights and improve their lives by empowering them politically and economically,” Dejene said.
According to Dejene, while the childcare regulation does support working mothers, gaps in its implementation remain.
“To fill this gap, 416 daycare centres were established across the country, with 226 being in government agencies. 190 paid daycare centres are located in Addis Ababa. But most daycare services are not affordable for many mothers and are based in the capital, Addis Ababa,” Dejene disclosed.
They may not be ubiquitous yet but the daycare services that exist are a huge relief for working mothers like Samrawit Kebede.
Kebede had been working for 8 years but after the recent birth of a child she decided to leave her job as she was unable to balance work and raising children.
“After giving birth to this child due to the lack of home maids, I had to choose between leaving my job and making changes to parenting and childcare. When I heard this news about opening daycare centres in companies, I decided to continue my work and raise my child without discouragement,” Kebede said.
bird story agency
Useful links:
https://dmethiolawyers.com/family-leave-the-ethiopian-labour-law-perspective%25ef%25bf%25bc/
https://www.academia.edu/37064614/Proclamation_No_1064_2017_Federal_Civil_Servants_Proclamation
