The Care Economy
Kidogo - quality child care through social franchising
Kidogo improves access to quality, affordable childcare through social franchising, ensuring children receive the best possible start to life.
Solution Pitch
The Problem
Globally, 350 million children lack access to quality childcare. In Kenya’s informal settlements, where 60% of the urban population lives, there is a childcare crisis. When a child spends their essential early years in an unsafe, unhealthy environment, they enter primary school with cognitive, emotional, and physical deficits.
The Solution
Kidogo is a social enterprise that improves access to quality, affordable early childhood care and education in East Africa's under-resourced communities. Kidogo uses an innovative social franchising approach to identify, train, and support female entrepreneurs (Mamapreneurs) to start or grow childcare micro-businesses.
Kidogo’s network of Mamapreneurs provides quality childcare & early childhood services in their local communities for an affordable fee - each daycare is profitable and self-sustaining. This enables children to receive nutrition, stimulation, and play-based interactions during their essential first five years of life when 90% of brain development occurs.
Over eight years, Kidogo has become the largest childcare network in Kenya with 600+ franchised Kidogo Mamapreneurs serving ~13,000 children. Each direct impact on a child has an indirect multiplier effect of three due to an improved household impact on mothers and older siblings.
Stats
There are almost 14,000 Mamapreneurs and children they care for in Mamapreneur centers.
In 2022 so far, over 160 children with severe malnutrition were either given supplements or referred to the health facility for further nutrition support as a result of the solution.
Market Opportunity
Kidogo focuses on under-resourced, urban areas where mothers are working and children 0-3 are in informal childcare centers. This segment is most vulnerable to poor early childhood care and lack of childcare policies. In Nairobi there are 4,000 informal daycares where parents pay $1 per day.
Organization Highlights
Partnership with Kisumu County Vocational Training Centres: Kidogo partners with the centers to provide childcare, enabling young mothers to receive an uninterrupted education.
World Vision: Kidogo is expanding its model to Ethiopia to support a World Vision Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative.
African Population Health Research Centre (APHRC): A research project in Kenya to examine the impact of Kidogo’s model on women’s economic and labor participation outcomes in Nakuru county.
African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF): Through AECF Kidogo has expanded to the Kakuma Kalobeyei Refugee Camp.
UNICEF Kenya: Kidogo is providing technical support with curriculum development and training in baby and childcare facilities.
Partnership Goals
Kidogo seeks:
Expansion of market reach and internal team
Technology to increase efficiency
Increased visibility and fundraising
Review and support in defining impact metrics
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Headquarters: Nairobi, Kenya
Stage: Scale
Working In: Kenya
Current Employees: 83
Solution Website: https://www.kidogo.co/
Solution Team:
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Sabrina Habib CEO and Co-Founder, Kidogo
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