Guatemala City: A focus on working women and childcare

This paper assesses the problems that female headed household face in terms of employment and childcare in Guatemala, and examines the impact of a public daycare programme on their employment opportunities and the nutrition of their children.

The government sponsored Hogares Comunitarios (Public Daycare) program aims to address the childcare needs of poor women as well as the levels of malnutrition and lack of preschool attention received by the poorest children in the city. The report finds that the program reaches its targeted population: families of working parents with few resources and particularly families where mothers are the main income-earner. It has also had significant impact of the program on the diets of participating children.