The International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Industry, Kaliti Food Share Company (CEREALIA), Partnership for Change (PfC), and development partners from Germany and Norway, inaugurated a model on-site workplace childcare facility in Addis Ababa. The initiative, launched under the ILO’s ProAgro Ethiopia and Promoting Workers’ Rights and Gender Equality at Work in Africa – Phase II projects, aims to demonstrate how care-responsive workplaces can promote gender equality, improve enterprise productivity, and support decent work in Ethiopia’s agro-processing sector.
The inauguration took place at CEREALIA on October 28, 2025, on the eve of the UN International Day of Care and Support. The facility represents a successful public-private partnership involving multiple stakeholders, highlighting the importance of workplace childcare in supporting working parents, especially women. Khumbula Ndaba, ILO Country Director for Ethiopia and Special Representative to the AU and ECA, emphasized that workplace childcare not only reduces stress for working mothers but also fosters gender equality and social justice.
Supporting the initiative, Dawit Moges, First Vice President of the Confederation of Ethiopian Employers Association (CEEA), noted that “care at work is not a cost but an investment in productivity.” He stressed that when employers care for their workers, it strengthens their motivation and commitment to the organization. CEREALIA’s CEO, Dawit Tamrat, affirmed the company’s commitment to managing and promoting the facility as a model for replication across other industries.
Partnership for Change (PfC), which supports quality childcare and early childhood education, played a key role in implementing the project by integrating its expertise into the private sector. ILO ProAgro Ethiopia Project Manager, Anthony Agyenta, highlighted that women make up nearly 65% of the workforce in Ethiopia’s agro-processing sector and often face challenges balancing work and family due to the lack of childcare facilities. The new daycare addresses this gap by creating an enabling environment that allows women to work full-time, reduces absenteeism, and enhances productivity.
The CEREALIA daycare center stands as a model of good practice linking gender equality and enterprise development. It reflects the ILO’s commitment to supporting care-responsive workplace policies and encouraging enterprises to integrate such initiatives into their operational and collective frameworks, contributing to both economic and social advancement in Ethiopia.
