Subsidized childcare and working women in urban Guatemala

Ruel, Marie T.; de la Brière, Bénédicte; Hallman, Kelly; Quisimbing, Agnes R.; de Salazar, Nora Coj;. 2003. Subsidized childcare and working women in urban Guatemala. In Household decisions, gender, and development: a synthesis of recent research. Quisumbing, Agnes R., ed. Chapter 31. Pp. 218-224. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/157528

With increasing urbanization, the percentage of women participating in the labor force and the percentage of households headed by single mothers have increased. Reliable and affordable child-care alternatives are thus becoming increasingly important in urban areas. The Hogares Comunitarios Program (HCP) was established in Guatemala City in 1991 as a direct response to the increasing need of poor urban dwellers for substitute childcare. This government-sponsored pilot program was designed as a strategy to alleviate poverty by providing working parents with low-cost, high-quality childcare within their community.