National Childcare Think Tank

Childcare is essential infrastructure for children, families and economies. Yet provision can be fragmented across informal and formal providers, government mandates, funder programmes and community realities. Providers need practical support to improve quality. Families need services they can trust and afford. Governments need evidence, workable standards and implementation capacity.

The National Childcare Think Tank creates a neutral space where government, childcare providers, worker and parent voices, funders, researchers and technical partners can turn a shared concern into coordinated action. The work is designed to move beyond dialogue toward government-anchored regulatory and implementation infrastructure.

The National Childcare Think Tank is helping move the childcare sector from fragmented projects and separate provider networks towards a more coordinated, nationally owned system. Progress has begun with government actors, childcare providers, funders, researchers and other sector partners aligning around a shared understanding of the challenges and a common agenda for action. Together, stakeholders are working to translate standards that can be difficult for providers to apply into practical, proportionate pathways for quality improvement, registration and compliance. The initiative is also strengthening collaboration around sector data, with the aim of creating a clearer picture of childcare supply, workforce needs, affordability and service quality to guide policy, financing and implementation decisions. Discussions are increasingly connecting short-term program funding with the longer-term resources and institutional capabilities required to strengthen the childcare system as a whole. Importantly, the work is moving beyond policy dialogue towards clearer government ownership, defined stakeholder roles, coordinated implementation and shared accountability. Through this collective process, the National Childcare Think Tank is building the foundations for a childcare system that is safer and more supportive for children, more practical for providers, more accessible for families and more sustainable over time.

SITU is supporting the institutional and operating foundations of the Childcare Think Tank as it moves from an emerging coalition towards a structured, government-led platform. This includes providing a neutral home for financial and administrative support.

Significant progress was made in the first quarter of 2026. Engagement with the Office of the President in Kenya was renewed through the Secretary to the Cabinet, followed by alignment with the Ministry of Gender and other institutions responsible for childcare policy, oversight and implementation. A high-level roundtable was subsequently convened at UNGA to explore how Kenya could unlock public financing for childcare. The meeting brought together the Cabinet Secretary for Gender, the Secretary to the Cabinet, the Principal Secretary responsible for Children Services, Senate and county assembly leadership, South African government representatives, philanthropic partners and members of the care ecosystem.

The discussion resulted in broad stakeholder alignment and a clear commitment to move from dialogue to coordinated action. The most important impact to date is institutional: childcare has gained high-level government ownership, key stakeholders are aligned around a shared national agenda, and the work now has a defined pathway towards implementation. The next phase will focus on formally establishing the Think Tank, agreeing roles and meeting structures, prioritizing national childcare standards, conducting daycare visits and designing context-specific pilots. Together, these steps are laying the foundations for a childcare system that is safer for children, more practical for providers, more accessible to families and more sustainable for government to finance and oversee.