Transforming the Care Economy in East and Southern Africa

In ESAR UN Women aims to transform care systems by promoting investment, developing comprehensive policies, and partnering with governments, the private sector, and civil society to ensure decent work, social protection, and gender norm change. These efforts seek to reduce and redistribute unpaid care responsibilities while creating decent work in the care sectors to enhance women’s economic empowerment. Transforming care systems requires taking a full life cycle approach and supporting women and girls at every stage to remove persistent gender inequalities. It will benefit economies, families, businesses, but mostly, women and girls.

UN Women ESARO WEE Unit takes a holistic approach to transforming care systems, as different areas of work complement each other.

Our solutions

• Policy and advocacy: Supporting the development and implementation of comprehensive policies at all levels to recognize, reduce, redistribute, represent, and reward both paid and unpaid care and domestic work. We influence national and regional care economy strategies, and work to integrate care into fiscal and social protection frameworks.
• Evidence and innovation: Generating and supporting the collection of Time Use Survey data, piloting innovative care models, and driving cross-country knowledge sharing to inform effective action.
• Capacity strengthening: Empowering country offices, governments, RECs, the private sector, and CSOs to localize solutions and scale up best practices across the region.
• Strengthening care infrastructure and access to care services: Identifying and scaling up innovative care service models and promoting investment in time-saving infrastructure and technologies to expand access to quality care services.
• Shifting social norms: Transforming how care work is perceived, so it is recognized as valuable, skilled, and a shared responsibility. We work with CSOs, media, influencers, the creative industry, traditional leaders, and men and boys (promoting positive masculinity) through targeted campaigns, media partnerships, and community engagement.
• Job creation: Promoting the creation of decent jobs in the care economy through formalization of informal and domestic care work including migrant workers.
• Private sector engagement: Supporting businesses to assess gaps in care provision in their operations and supply chains and promoting investments in workplace care policies and decent work conditions.
• Partnership building: Develop a vibrant multi-stakeholder community dedicated to advancing the care agenda across the continent, an inclusive space for collective action, advocacy, communication, and learning about care. In the context of global funding cuts, strong partnership will bring together diverse actors, including governments, civil society organizations, media, the private sector, international agencies, and academia, promoting dialogue, knowledge exchange, and coordinated advocacy to make care visible and valued at all levels.