In Tchatchégou, a locality in the commune of Glazoué in central Benin, the day begins early. In the streets, women from the informal sector are already at work: vendors, artisans, food processors. Many of them are mothers of young children. Some carry their children on their backs while working. Others leave them with a neighbour, an older female relative, sometimes a girl barely older than the child herself. These are makeshift arrangements, driven by the absence of any alternative.
In this context, the African Center for Equitable Development designed a childcare model tailored to the constraints of informal sector workers: flexible in its hours, rooted in local communities, and managed by the beneficiaries themselves. The ambition is twofold: to enable mothers to work under better conditions, and to provide children with a safe and stimulating environment. On 18 September 2025, the first Community Childcare Space (ECGE) opened its doors in Tchatchégou. On 17 November 2025, a second was inaugurated in Ouidah. From the day after each opening ceremony, the first children, aged six months to five years, were welcomed.
A Massive Demand Met by an Inadequate Institutional Response
In Benin, the informal sector employs the majority of economically active women. These workers benefit from neither parental leave, nor subsidised childcare, nor any of the work-life balance mechanisms that the formal sector takes for granted. Where public childcare facilities exist, they presuppose regular hours and a capacity for monthly payment that immediately excludes low-income households. The consequences are well documented: children exposed to insufficiently protective environments, mothers forced to reduce their income-generating activities, and a dynamic in which family vulnerability and economic erosion reinforce one another.
Flexibility as a Response to the Informal Sector's Constraints
The ECGEs deployed in Tchatchégou and Ouidah are the result of several months of preparatory work. Field validation missions were conducted, the specific needs of mothers were mapped by site, available infrastructure was identified, and six Community Mothers and Facilitators (MACs) were recruited: women from the neighbourhoods concerned, trained in the management tools specific to these models.
The governance structure is deliberately local. On the day of each launch, a General Assembly installed a Management Committee (CoGes): a woman leader as president, a beneficiary as secretary, and a representative of local authorities (GUPS or municipal council) responsible for treasury or community mobilisation. The guiding principle is clear: childcare is not a service delivered from the outside, but a common good whose responsibility belongs to those most directly concerned.
Chronicle of Four Founding Days
Tchatchégou, 17 September. The morning is devoted to refresher training for the MACs on management tools: attendance registers, presence logs, monitoring reports. In the afternoon, forty beneficiary women are welcomed and settled in. The official proceedings are opened by representatives of the Glazoué municipality; the CoGes is formed through a transparent and participatory selection process. The day concludes with a visit to the childcare space. The following morning, the first children cross the threshold.
Zè, 18 September. The team travels to the neighbouring commune for an exploratory mission. Accompanied by the GUPS chief and neighbourhood leaders, they assess the spaces proposed for two future pilot sites, Zè Plaques and Zè Centre. A technical diagnostic grid is used to evaluate compliance with minimum safety and hygiene standards. The findings will inform infrastructure decisions ahead of a potential future rollout.
Ouidah, 19 September and 17 November. The Tchatchégou sequence is replicated: refresher training for facilitators, welcome of beneficiaries, installation of the CoGes, and an official ceremony attended by the head of the Ouidah GUPS. On 17 November, the space begins operating. The six-month pilot phase is under way.
In total, ninety-six participants took part in these four days. Among them, eighty beneficiary women: those for whom, concretely, the existence of these spaces changes the daily equation between economic activity and the protection of their children.
Towards a Policy Framework Grounded in Field Realities
Each pilot site now functions as a knowledge production mechanism. Over the coming six months, attendance at the spaces will be systematically recorded, along with the regularity of children's presence, observable effects on mothers' economic activity, and the well-being of the young children in care. The aim is to establish with rigour what works, what requires adjustment, and under what conditions these models could be replicated in other contexts and brought to scale.
The underlying challenge remains: Benin does not yet have a policy framework specifically designed for childcare in the informal sector. Progress has been made in child protection and standards for care facilities, but these do not address the realities of informal workers.
The results of this pilot phase are intended to help fill that gap. The data collected, covering attendance, effects on mothers' economic activity, and children's development outcomes, will build a rigorous knowledge base designed to be used by public decision-makers. In time, this model has the potential to be replicated in other national contexts facing comparable challenges.
This work is supported by Global Affairs Canada and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), whose backing anchors it in international standards of development research and extends its reach beyond Benin.
