The Power of Care: innovations and investments in the care economy in East and Southern Africa” series

These six country case studies show how the care economy largely sustained by women’s disproportionate unpaid and underpaid labor forms the invisible backbone of societies while simultaneously reinforcing gender inequality when undervalued or unsupported. The briefs reveal the significant time poverty experienced by women in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, demonstrating how to address these challenges to enhance women’s access to education, decent work, leadership, and economic autonomy. 

The studies collectively highlight country-level efforts aligned with the 5R+ Framework of Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, Represent and Resource care work. The framework has been demonstrated through initiatives such as recognizing unpaid care in national policies and laws, reducing labor-intensive tasks via clean energy and water infrastructure, redistributing responsibilities through childcare centers and social norms change, rewarding paid care workers with improved labor protections, and ensuring representation of caregivers and care workers in decision-making processes. 

From Rwanda’s landmark legal recognition of unpaid care, to Tanzania’s large-scale clean cooking and childcare infrastructure, Kenya’s emerging national care policy, Ethiopia’s childcare investments with strong economic returns, South Africa’s push for domestic worker rights, and Zimbabwe’s Safe Markets integrating childcare into women’s economic spaces, the publications together demonstrate how applying the 5R+ framework can transform care systems, expand women’s economic opportunities, and drive inclusive and sustainable development across the region.