Empowering female entrepreneurs to help solve South Africa’s gap in affordable early childhood learning centres

J.P. Morgan funding SmartStart to support the growth 440 female entrepreneurs from low-income backgrounds

By Kevin Latter and Grace Matlhape

The unemployment rate is woefully high at 35% for adults and a staggering 65% for youth in South Africa, meaning access to dignified work is out of reach for many. The figures are troubling, not least because there are over one million?children without access to early childhood development (ECD) programs in South Africa, and evidence shows how critical these years are as a foundation for learning but without affordable access to quality childcare it means that inequality starts at a tender age. Through J.P. Morgan’s mission of Inclusive Economic Growth, we support marginalised communities to improve their economic resilience and prosperity.

In South Africa our impact ranges from supporting young black women from low-income backgrounds to become software developers; to inspiring entrepreneurs from Soweto township to grow their businesses and create more jobs for their community; to supporting spaza shop owners who need the tools to better their financial resilience for themselves and their families.

Seeing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn that took the biggest toll on black women, we increased our corporate social investments to support more women and wanted to find a way to address the prominent issue of access to affordable childcare as a means to support families to return to work. We found a powerful opportunity to partner with SmartStart to support low-income women with entrepreneurship skills to help close South Africa’s ECD provision gap.

Founded in 2015, SmartStart seeks to close South Africa’s ECD provision gap through their female entrepreneur franchise model. SmartStart works with franchisors, traditionally NGOs, who recruit and support franchisees, typically women from low-income backgrounds who have been trained by SmartStart, to provide a structured and enriching daily routine for children within their communities. SmartStart also works with government and leads advocacy efforts to increase the commitment to ECD across the country.

SmartStart’s novel social franchise model has proved highly scalable, affordable, and effective. Since its foundation, SmartStart has reached 100,600 children in low-income areas through 9,500 female entrepreneurs. Currently, the organization has 40,000 registered children and 5,500 active franchisees.

Without doubt, the last two years have been undeniably challenging for small business owners, but we have been so inspired by the resiliency and creativity of entrepreneurs to adapt to these rapidly changing environments throughout the course of the pandemic. As philanthropy partners we understand the barriers facing female founders, and that many of these barriers have been exacerbated in the current environment, be that access to technical support, peer networks or mentorship and we want to be part of the solution.

J.P. Morgan’s financial commitment to SmartStart dates to the first pandemic lockdown in early 2020 when many SmartStart franchisees saw a total loss of income and our support provided relief vouchers for food as well as business support to help them prepare to bounce back when the lockdown lifted. Since then, over 90% of SmartStart franchisees successfully re-opened their doors.

It’s why J.P. Morgan and SmartStart are so excited to extend our partnership further to scale business support to strengthening 440 women entrepreneurs in a post-COVID world, to formalise their business, register, and stabilise their income to give them a strong platform for sustained growth.

On a personal note, one of us is a proud father of four children including two strong and inspirational daughters and I am deeply committed to the importance of ECD as well as our need to urgently address Gender Based Violence in our society; the other grew up as a young black girl and black woman in South Africa, surrounded and inspired by powerful black women whose value beyond their immediate communities was not always seen and appreciated. Today I see a similar asset throughout the country and the untapped opportunity that their economic empowerment presents to hundreds of thousands of children.?SmartStart is an opportunity to contribute to building a vibrant care economy to shift systemic barriers that hold women and children back.

We want all women and children to be measured upon their individual merits as uniquely talented individuals, not on their gender, race or socio-economic background. Support for them - and other girls and women alike - must come from all sides and the top down. Advocacy and mentorship are necessary to provide different perspectives and views that enable both personal and professional growth. For female entrepreneurs having support from an organisation like SmartStart could be the missing piece to their ultimate success.

All of the program’s inspiring entrepreneurs, like Merle Brown who owns Little Feet Big Steps ECD centre in Westbury, will benefit from comprehensive business support which includes technical assistance, coaching and peer-to-peer support as SmartStart champions entrepreneurs whose potential is too often untapped to start, sustain, and grow their business.

Just as we know that a company investing in its employees is key to a firm's future, we know that the same is true of investing in the communities where we live, work, and do business. It's about nurturing a culture in which women have equal opportunity to achieve their potential over the long term. It's about investing in women's success and understanding that each woman's individual success is critical to the success of economic growth and society as a whole. We are working to combine our efforts and resources to create greater impact, greater influence, and greater leverage. By bringing all of our work together, it signals we are serious about propelling more women forward and helping to shape their future, and we know there is much, much more to do.

Kevin Latter is J.P. Morgan’s Senior Country Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa. Grace Matlhape is CEO of SmartStart.