From Plots to Playrooms : Public Land Strategies for Affordable and Accessible Childcare

Overview & Synopsis

Childcare supports human capital development, economic growth, employment, and gender equality, yet access to affordable and convenient services remains limited in many countries. Governments often hold an underused asset that can help address these gaps: public land and buildings. When planned and allocated strategically, these assets can reduce costs, improve location, and expand childcare services where families need them most. This brief highlights how public land strategies can support childcare expansion and identifies practical opportunities for policymakers, local governments, development partners, and practitioners working across childcare and land management domains. The brief summarizes insights from the Policy Report From Plots to Playrooms: Public Land Strategies for Affordable and Accessible Childcare (Amoils, Buchhave, Stanley 2025). The report combines a review of global literature, multiple country examples, and practical implementation tools to examine how public land and building assets can be used to expand access to childcare. It includes two in-depth country case studies, Tanzania and Indonesia, that illustrate challenges and policy options for leveraging public land to support childcare provision.