WHY SHOULD COUNTRIES IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA CARE ABOUT CARE?

Care work is essential for the functioning of households and societies, but it is often not recognized, paid, or valued. Women around the world take on significant amounts of unpaid care work, from cooking and cleaning to fetching water and firewood, and caring for children and the elderly or sick family members. In West and Central Africa , they devote 10 million hours every year in on unpaid care work.  As a result, they have less time to devote to paid work/income generating activities, or educational opportunities. Moreover, countries are missing out on fiscal revenues and growth opportunities with women's outside the labour market. This advocacy note outlines the most recent data on women's unpaid care work in West and Central Africa and indicates what policymakers, private sector, civil society organizations and development partners can do to recognize, reduce and redistribute women's unpaid care work in the region.