UN Women West and Central Africa Gender-responsive Care Framework

Care work, mostly carried out by women, unpaid or underpaid, remains informal and invisible. Despite its inherent value to societies, communities and families, unpaid care work is also excluded from economic calculations and ends up perpetuating gender inequalities. However, unpaid care work receives very little attention on the political agenda in West and Central Africa.

This Care Framework highlights the context and  challenges of women's unpaid care work in the West and Central Africa region. It also describes UN Women's approach to  the care economy to address unpaid care within the context of the SDGs and the polycrisis in the region,  and enabling gender equality and economic justice for rural and poor women.