The Feminist Economists Taskforce, launched in 2024, is UN Women’s flagship mechanism to accelerate gender‑responsive macroeconomic reform and drive normative change for gender equality across West and Central Africa. By placing women at the center of economic transformation, the Taskforce brings gender‑responsive economic analysis directly into national and regional policymaking spaces.
The Taskforce is a regional team of economists operating across UN Women Country Offices. It supports governments in designing and implementing gender‑responsive macroeconomic, care, and climate policies, ensuring that reforms are grounded in evidence and aligned with women’s rights. As part of this work, the Taskforce collaborates closely with women’s organizations and civil society actors to ensure that these processes reflect lived realities and advance tangible improvements in women’s daily lives and work.
The Taskforce works across sectors, connects national reforms with local implementation, and combines evidence generation, policy reform, and capacity‑building engaging multiple actors to deliver results at scale. This integrated approach enables countries to advance transformative care systems, strengthen gender‑responsive climate action, and embed gender equality within economic governance.
The Care Snapshots provide a comprehensive overview of the care economy and care systems in ten countries in West and Central Africa. They highlight existing policies and reforms, identify gaps, and make the case for investing in care systems as a driver of women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development.
The transition to a low carbon economy is leading to important socioeconomic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. The green transition can help governments align their development strategies. Gender equality and women’s and youth employment are critical priorities. This toolkit helps stakeholders involved in the process of formulation or revision of climate change and green policies (i.e. NDCs or NAPs) to identify opportunities to maximize co-benefits of gender equality and climate action.
