Unpaid Care – Why and How to Invest: Policy briefing for national governments

Organization(s): Oxfam
Author: Man-Kwun Chan
Year: 2018
PDF of Resource

Investments which support households to better meet their unpaid care responsibilities – such as childcare, food preparation and laundry – can yield substantial returns in terms of macro-economic growth, job creation and other key government priorities. This briefing looks at selected evidence and examples and argues that governments should:

• include commitments to support households’ unpaid care work in relevant policies and programmes, and collect data on unpaid care to support policy making;
• increase households’ access to care-supporting infrastructure and services;
• encourage men and boys to share care work; and
• step up efforts to give women a real voice in policy making, and a real opportunity to speak out about unpaid care.