Integrating Childcare into Nairobi’s Markets: Strengthening Policy for Inclusive Economic Participation
Nairobi is at an important policy moment, as childcare is shifting from the margins of market planning to becoming a recognised component of inclusive economic participation and urban policy.
This momentum was evident at the Stakeholder Roundtable on “Integrating Childcare into Nairobi’s Markets: Strengthening Policy for Inclusive Economic Participation,” convened by Wow Mom Kenya bringing together county government, researchers, policy experts, childcare stakeholders and partners around a shared priority: advancing the adoption of a stronger policy framework for market-based childcare and mobilising the resources needed to move it forward.
With 80% of market vendors being women, Nairobi’s markets are critical economic spaces. They are workplaces, sources of livelihoods and engines of local economic activity. Yet the care responsibilities carried by many of the women working in these spaces have rarely been reflected in the policies, infrastructure and systems governing markets. The Roundtable brought this gap directly into the policy conversation.
Bringing childcare into the market policy conversation
The discussion moved beyond the question of whether childcare is needed in markets. The focus was on how childcare can become part of the systems that already govern, design and invest in Nairobi’s markets.
CCGD presented on Nairobi County’s market-based childcare models, bringing practical experience and lessons into the policy conversation. Anne Muthoni of Wow Mom Kenya further reflected on the organisation’s market-based childcare model and the experience of translating the needs of women traders into practical childcare solutions within market environments.
The conversation then widened to the broader policy architecture. Chris Muthomi presented the Nairobi City County Trade, Market and Investment Policy, drawing attention to the wider policy environment within which markets operate. This was critical because childcare cannot sit in isolation from the policies governing trade, markets and investment. If markets are being planned as economic spaces, the systems that enable people to participate productively in those spaces must also be considered. Wanjiku Mathara took the discussion directly into the Nairobi City County Market Centre Childcare Draft Policy, 2025, highlighting the policy pathway for establishing childcare within market centres and creating a stronger framework for quality, access and accountability.
Mucemi Gakuru, drawing from his involvement in market design, brought another important dimension into the conversation: the physical market itself. His contribution highlighted the gaps and features that need to be considered when designing markets that can accommodate quality childcare services. The policy, therefore, is not simply about placing a daycare centre somewhere within a market. It is about deliberately identifying the spaces, facilities and design considerations required to make childcare a functional part of the market environment.
Together, these contributions revealed the bigger opportunity. Nairobi does not need parallel systems for care and markets. It needs to bring the two together.
The consensus that emerged from the Roundtable was therefore significant: childcare should be integrated into the broader market-based policy framework, rather than treated as a standalone intervention. As Peninah Ndegwa, Founder & CEO of Wow Mom Kenya, emphasised, childcare is inherently multisectoral. Its success depends on how government departments, market authorities, communities, private actors, researchers and partners work together to embed care within the systems that shape women’s economic lives. Sylvia Bonareri, NCCG Legal Officer, then brought the conversation closer to action by outlining the County’s policy adoption process — helping stakeholders understand what it will take to move from a draft policy towards formal adoption.
A powerful call to recognise childcare as economic infrastructure
The conversation gained further momentum during the Policy Address by Dr. Anastasia Nyalita, CECM for Hustlers and Business Opportunity, Nairobi City County Government. Her message was both practical and transformative: childcare must be recognised as economic infrastructure. For women traders, childcare is not separate from their livelihoods. When safe, affordable and reliable childcare is unavailable, the consequences can be immediate — reduced working hours, lost income and fewer opportunities to grow a business.
This is why markets are such an important entry point for childcare investment. For many traders, the market is their workplace. Bringing childcare closer to that workplace can remove one of the barriers that makes economic participation harder for women.
Dr. Nyalita called for a fundamental shift from seeing childcare as a cost to recognising it as an investment — an investment in women’s economic participation, stronger businesses and children’s wellbeing. She also emphasised that solutions must reflect the realities of the women they are intended to serve. Policies should not expect women to fit into systems that were never designed around their lives. Instead, systems must respond to women’s lived realities. Her address reinforced the importance of the government working alongside the private sector, communities, traders and development partners to identify practical models, learn from what is already working and build sustainable solutions. And the call was clear: move from pilots to systems; from commitments to policy, implementation and measurable impact.
From policy ambition to collective action
Importantly, the Roundtable did not end with agreement around the table. Stakeholders committed to supporting the next phase through resource mobilisation, technical assistance, research, policy support and connections to potential funding partners.
This commitment matters. Because adopting a policy is only one part of creating change. The policy must be resourced, supported and translated into action. The opportunity now is to bring together the evidence, political will, technical expertise and resources required to embed childcare within Nairobi’s existing market systems. The direction is clear: integrate childcare into market policy. Resource policy. Strengthen implementation. Build markets that recognise not only how women work, but what enables them to work.
Nairobi’s markets are already powering the city’s economy. It is time for the systems that govern them to recognise care as part of the infrastructure that makes that economy possible.