Abigail Appiah’s Post

ℹ️ Most workers in informal employment live in poverty and earn low and irregular incomes. The lack of access to quality care services, such as child care 👶🏽 and care for older persons 👵🏿, disproportionately increases women’s unpaid care work and impacts their choice of employment, working hours, place of work and earnings. This is ONE factor that contributes to a higher proportion of women in informal employment across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. 🌐 #Solidarity #CareEconomy

A basic income grant (BIG) can contribute to women's economic empowerment in South Africa, by giving greater autonomy to caregivers. For a society and economy to function, unpaid labour, predominantly undertaken by women, encompassing tasks such as childcare, eldercare, tending to the sick or disabled, domestic chores like cooking and cleaning, and engaging in volunteer work is critical. But despite its indispensable nature, this form of labour is often not recognised as formal employment and remains undervalued. Consequently, women and children are more vulnerable to poverty. Addressing the poverty crisis solely through traditional job creation measures exacerbates this gender disparity and impedes individuals' ability to fulfil caregiving responsibilities within their families and communities. The implementation of a BIG alongside employment opportunities can help improve this. For all the fact sheets, policy briefs, and presentations on BIG, please visit our website: https://lnkd.in/dRCwgvyw #SouthAfrica #BasicIncomeGrant #InstituteforEconomicJustice #BasicIncomeForAll

During a conversation last night, a friend made this statement ’in Africa everyone has some support for domestic & unpaid care work except the poor young woman or girl in the village’. A sad but poor fact! According to the International Labor Organization women in #Africa spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on unpaid care work, compared to 2.8 hours for men. Given the comment above - what is the statistic for this group of girls and women? How much are they contributing to our economies? How do we ensure their contributions are acknowledged & compensated. This year analysis by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) will outline what policies countries must adopt to ensure we reduce the level of unpaid domestic work on the continent. https://lnkd.in/eW4-VyrM

Moments from the Care & Economy Conference: Dr Chukwuemeka Onyimadu, during the keynote address on behalf of the Country Representative, UN Women Nigeria - Ms Beatrice Eyong stated that investing in Childcare in not only about the needs of children, it is also about creating an ecosystem that allows women to thrive. He also stated that creating care infrastructure, could also lead to the creation of 17 Million formal jobs. This would definitely catalyze economic growth and lift families out of poverty. As a care focused organisation, Event Nanny believes that organisations need to be more intentional about investment in Care to improve the wellbeing of mothers in the workplace. #ChilcarePolicies #CareAndEconomyConference #UNWomen

New Publications Alert! PARI has published three new papers and a policy brief on the time use of men and women in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda. “Gendered Patterns of Adults’ and Children’s Time and Access to Technology and Infrastructure in Rural Uganda”: This paper analyzes the time use patterns of men, women, and children in rural areas of Uganda and assesses the influence of different technologies on time allocation. Link: https://bit.ly/3W5WZS7 “Innovations, Technology and Time Allocation: Implications for Labour Productivity and Welfare in Ghana”: This study investigates the dynamics of time allocation of men, women, and children in various types of work in rural households in Ghana. Link: https://bit.ly/3W9k3zx “Time Use among Rural Households in Ethiopia: Implications for Household Welfare and Productivity”: This paper examines the dynamics of time allocation within Ethiopian rural households. Link: https://bit.ly/3Y7Jxib The insights from these studies are summarized in a policy brief, which presents the distribution of men’s and women’s time use between paid work, unpaid work, and leisure, highlighting how technologies and infrastructure can reduce unpaid work and improve welfare and productivity. Link: https://bit.ly/3XOkCzF

📢 Two months ago, the Investment Climate Reform Facility invited practitioners from #Africa, the #Caribbean and the #Pacific #ACP to Kigali, Rwanda, to exchange with peers about Women’s Economic Empowerment #WEE and Business Environment Reforms #BER. 🌍 What an energizing experience it was to meet with over 140 partners from 38 countries and to learn about their experiences reforming laws and challenging gender stereotypes. ♀ If you know me, it won’t come as a surprise that I oversaw the #CareEconomy workstream of the conference. Women carry out 76% of the unpaid care work globally, and - in the words of the International Labour Organization - “while care work can be rewarding, when in excess (…) it hampers the economic opportunities and well-being of unpaid carers”. 🧠 To get inspired, we learned from the Dominican Vice-Minister Ministerio de la Mujer about their successful holistic programme ‘Communities of Care’; from Government of Sierra Leone about the 2022 #GenderEquality Act increasing paid maternity leave to reach international standards; from Collaborative Action for Childcare in Africa about the co-development of the Kenya National Care Policy together between the government, businesses and caregivers; and from Women, Business and the Law about their new indicator on #childcare. 🎯 In brief, to effectively grant women the same options to choose from as men, we need the law, but it goes hand in hand with shifting gender norms too. 🔎 You can read more about the stories and lessons shared during the #ICR4WEE Conference in the below report and let us know what you think! ( 👏 Kudos to our partners and participants, as well as to the amazing professionals I have the chance to work with everyday in the ICR team!)

This International Domestic Workers Day, we honor the vital contributions of domestic workers who tirelessly support our households and communities. Despite their crucial role, many face unfair treatment and lack of recognition. In partnership with Oxfam in Kenya and KUDHEIHA, Youth Alive! Kenya is proud to implement the two care projects (Time To Care and WEE Care project). This projects aim to transform gender dynamics by improving care infrastructure for women and girls and addressing inequalities in paid and unpaid care work. By recognizing, reducing, representing, redistributing, and rewarding both unpaid and paid care and domestic workers, we aim to create a better working conditions and fair compensation for them. As Youth Alive Kenya, We are committed to amplifying care workers voices and ensuring their representation in decision-making spaces. Let's work together to adopt gender-equitable social norms and push for the implementation of supportive legislation and policies. Empowering domestic workers means empowering our entire community. #TimeToCare  #DecentWorkForAll kudheiha Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada Oxfam

“Women are the ones who do the majority of domestic work, also called family care. Unfortunately, because this work is unpaid, it remains invisible in GDP and in analyses of economic progress." -Aïssata Fall Media can shape discourse around unpaid care work, urging for policies that recognize, reduce, and redistribute essential work. PRB’s Aïssata Fall and our partner CREG Consortium Régional pour la Recherche en Economie Générationnelle are working hard in West Africa to address this important issue that disproportionately affect women. https://bit.ly/3SKMtg5 #unpaidcarework

“CARE IS THE WORK THAT MAKES ALL OTHER WORK POSSIBLE” In the lead-up to October 29, 2024 (the #InternationalDayofCareandSupport), we will collectively share information, data, and advocacy messages aimed at promoting further recognition of and reward for care work, understanding the care economy and gendered impacts of care work, and enactment of care responsive policy frameworks, investments, and budgets in Kenya. During this period, you'll see most of these concepts applied- Care economy, care work, care job, paid care, unpaid care, caregivers, care recipients, persons with disability, elderly care, supervisory care, childcare, 3R& 5R (recognize, reduce, redistribute, reward, represent), social protection, care service provision, care leave, parental leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, labour policies, domestic work, care burden, care system, care analysis, social justice, household care, labour market, decent work, gender incentive, employment incentive, social policy, purple economy, social enterprise, time-use survey, labour force survey, household survey, migrant workers, informal economy, informal sector, climate change, care-climate nexus, physical care infrastructure, social infrastructure, austerity measures, system of national accounts, GDP, time poverty, time-and labour saving technologies, social norms, positive masculinity, access to essential services, care diamond, among others. Let's keep the conversation interactive, educative, convincing, and trigger action at all levels. The time is now. International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), ICRW Africa, UN Women, State Department for Gender, Co-Impact, Oxfam, KU-WEE HUB, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WeProsper, @Council of Governors, KEPSA KENYA, H.E Mama Rachael Ruto, Innovations for Poverty Action, ActionAid International Kenya, Blandina Ijecha Bobson,Purity Osumba, Purity Chebor, Eva Komba, Evelyne Opondo,Rhoda Maina, Denis Galava, PhD, Kidogo, Collaborative Action for Childcare in Africa

iDE (International Development Enterprises) Marina Durano Bama Athreya This is an important article on the Gates Foundation website about the “care economy” and the fact that unpaid caregiving constrains women’s workforce participation. As part of iDE’s new 10-year strategy, and our commitment to women’s empowerment is a key driver of prosperity and inclusive growth, we are investing in child care business models in places such as Nepal and Zambia. #careeconomy  Read more here: https://lnkd.in/guZcmbW3