Every morning across South Africa, thousands of women open the doors of their early childhood development (ECD) centres. With every child who arrives, another mother is able to head to work, study or run her own business, knowing her child is in the care of someone she trusts. That quiet handover is one of the country’s most powerful engines of women’s economic participation, and one IMBE is committed to strengthening. 

Global research backs this up. A review of childcare programmes by MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) found that when mothers have reliable access to childcare, more of them enter the workforce, take on better job opportunities and see their own businesses become more productive.  

Over the past year, IMBE’s Accelerator Programme supported 1,339 ECD business owners across six provinces, providing them with the financial skills, practical tools and business guidance needed to grow stronger, more sustainable enterprises. In turn, those businesses reached almost 40,000 children, providing them with access to quality early learning and extending the programme’s impact well beyond the entrepreneurs themselves. 

Alongside this, IMBE’s Nutriwallet cashback programme expanded to 475 practitioners, helping more than 10,800 children access nutritious meals while reducing one of the largest operating costs many ECD entrepreneurs face. 

Building resilient businesses 

Infrastructure assessments and registration support are being woven more closely into the practitioner journey, helping centres progress towards formal registration with the Department of Basic Education’s Bana Pele programme and access the government subsidy. For many ECD businesses, that additional income provides greater financial stability during difficult periods and creates a stronger foundation for long-term sustainability. 

IMBE has also begun exploring another dimension of that resilience through access to appropriate financial products. More than 1,100 practitioners across five provinces have shared insights into their understanding of insurance, their needs and what they can realistically afford. Those insights are informing the development of a bundled consumer education and subsidised fire insurance offering, a small but meaningful safeguard for businesses that often operate from informal, higher-risk premises where a single incident can threaten years of hard work. 

Taken together, these interventions demonstrate that lasting economic empowerment depends on more than creating opportunities to earn an income. It depends on helping women build businesses resilient enough to withstand setbacks and grow over time. 

Scaling what works 

The opportunity now lies in expanding access to proven programmes so that more women and children across the country can benefit. South Africa’s goal of achieving universal access to quality early learning by 2030 will require a collective effort that extends well beyond what a single organisation can deliver alone. 

For IMBE, that means thinking not only about how many practitioners we can support directly, but also about how what we develop, test and refine can be codified and made available to others across the ECD ecosystem. That shift, from direct delivery to broader replication, is becoming an increasingly important part of our long-term vision. 

As we reflect back on Women’s Month, it’s worth recognising that every ECD business creates a ripple. It begins with one entrepreneur, reaches every child in her care, enables parents to participate more fully in the economy and strengthens the communities around it. The more women we equip to build sustainable ECD businesses, the further that ripple travels.