New global coalition launched at ECDAN’s Global Technical Financing Forum
Kigali, Rwanda – May 11, 2026: Several of the world’s leading organizations in home-based childcare came together on May 8th to launch the Global Home-Based Childcare Alliance, a global coalition committed to elevating home-based childcare as a first-choice, high-quality early childhood care and education option for families worldwide, at ECDAN’s Global Technical Financing Forum.
Home-based childcare — paid or unpaid care of children that occurs where a caregiver lives — is the primary care system for most children globally. It spans the full spectrum of living environments, from tents in refugee camps to urban apartments, and encompasses everything from informal family arrangements to licensed, professionalized services. Despite its reach and importance, home-based childcare has long been underrecognized and underfunded on the global stage.
The Global Home-Based Childcare Alliance mobilizes finance and works to advance global policy change for home-based childcare. Its primary work is advocacy to donors, development banks, and UN agencies. To support this advocacy, the Alliance acts as a knowledge broker, synthesizing members’ best practices and evidence of what works, and translates this knowledge base into compelling narratives and stories to mobilize finance and shift policies in support of home-based childcare.
“Across the globe, families depend on home-based child care to work, learn, and thrive – yet it remains largely invisible and under-resourced. This alliance represents an important step toward ensuring these educators are seen, invested in, and integrated into solutions that positively shape children’s futures,” shares Erica Phillips, Executive Director, National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC).
“The Alliance exists so we can shift how governments and donors see this work: as essential infrastructure that deserves investment, not an informal sector to be overlooked,” states Grace Matlhape, CEO, SmartStart.
“Childcare is essential economic and social infrastructure. Home-Based Childcare is a significant part of it, yet mostly treated as invisible labour,” adds Dr. Gacheri Njogu-Ndongwe, CEO, NurtureFirst.
The Alliance is founded by NurtureFirst, SmartStart, aeioTU, BRAC, OneSky, National Association for Family Child Care, and Tiney, organizations that together design and deliver home-based childcare programs across diverse countries and communities. Three founding members — SmartStart, Tiney, and the National Association for Family Child Care — are themselves networks of home-based childcare providers, ensuring that the voices, lived experiences, and priorities of providers remain central to the Alliance’s work. NurtureFirst serves as the operational host of the Alliance.
About the Global Home-Based Childcare Alliance: The Global Home-Based Childcare Alliance is a global coalition mobilizing finance and policy change to make home-based childcare a recognized, resourced, and high-quality early childhood care and education option for families worldwide. Learn more at https://hbccalliance.nurturefirst.org
Contact Information
Email: alliance@nurturefirst.org
