Care Work in THE Asia-PACIFIC : ARE WE

recognizing, reducing and redistributing care?

Asia-Pacific Policy Dialogue on “Women’s Economic

Empowerment in the Changing World of Work” 23-24 February 2017, UN Conference Centre, Bangkok

Jo Villanueva, Regional Change Lead on Women’s Economic Empowerment, Oxfam in Asia

Key Questions

• The basics on care and why is focusing on unpaid care work important for women’s economic empowerment?

• How are we addressing gender inequality in the

care economy at micro and macro levels? • What is the role of different stakeholders (either

individually and/or together ) to realise large-scale progress in transforming care (the 4 Rs of care)?

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What is care?

• Care provision is an essential dimension of well- being, but under-recognized and undervalued sector of the economy

• Care has long been considered to be the ‘natural’ responsibility of women and the costs

of providing care fall disproportionately on women • Unequal care responsibilities are a significant

and fundamental driver of poverty and gender inequality

• Different understandings of care shape different care agenda • Current understanding of care and advocacy

Key care concepts Care - are face-to-face activities that strengthen the physical health and safety, and the

physical, cognitive or emotional skills of the care recipient (England et al. 2002, cited by Razavi and Staab 2012). Caring for people always takes place within a care relationship between a caregiver and a care receiver (Jochimsen 2003)

Unpaid care work - refers to the direct care of persons and housework performed within

households without pay, and unpaid community work. The term is used similarly to the ‘older’ terms ‘reproductive work’, and ‘unremunerated work that lies beyond the National Account boundary’.

Paid care work – provision of direct care and domestic work to others with pay The Care Economy - captures the idea that unpaid care work produces ‘value’ (and can

therefore be considered to be productive or economic), but is invisible to standard valuations of aggregate output. This is because most care ‘services’ are produced outside of market exchanges. As a concept, the ‘care economy’ is almost interchangeable with ‘unpaid care work’. Calls for a rethinking of economic concepts and standards for measuring economic acivities.

The Triple R Framework - recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work as put forward by Elson (2008), offers a framework for analyzing avenues for change

towards more just ways of distributing the costs and benefits of unpaid care work.

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“Care is critical for human well-

being. We all continuously receive

care, not just the weak, vulnerable.

We aim for quality care of persons,

and affirm the right of women and

men to give and to receive care.

“Care is: Meeting the

material and/or

developmental,

emotional and

spiritual needs of one

or more other

persons ...

How is unpaid care work linked to paid work?

• Shapes the kind of paid work that can be undertaken by women – unskilled, low –valued, low-paid and unsafe • Undermines women’s position in decision making, accumulating savings, building assets • Being regarded as women’s “natural work,” performed in the “private sphere”

-essentializes UCW, robs it of its socio-economic aspects and contributions

Source: Oxfam and APMDD

Chris Young/Oxfam

Hidden subsidies

Involves a “systemic transfer of hidden subsidies to

the rest of the economy that go unrecognized”

Households, in which a host of unpaid care work

activities take place are seen as consumption and

income units and not production units.

They are not recognized as the site of economic

activities although these lead to lower labor

costs/smaller wage fund, increased profits, increased

process of accumulation.

Imposes a “systematic time-tax on women throughout

their life cycle”. Source: APMDD Presentation

Investing in care…

• It is a critical precondition for achieving women’s political,

economic and social rights and empowerment.

• It has has a widespread, long-term, positive impact on wellbeing

and development

• Care is a ‘social good’, not a ‘burden’

• Care provision is critical to address inequality and vulnerability,

both care providers and receivers

• Influences productivity and economic growth

The four Rs – transforming care

• Recognise care work

• Reduce difficult,

inefficient tasks

• Redistribute

responsibility for care

more equitably - from

women to men, and

from families to the

State/employers

• Represent carers in

decision making

“Three Rs of Unpaid Work” Prof. Diane Elson 2008

Care: not a ‘woman’s burden’ but a ‘societal good’

How is Unpaid Care Work Being Addressed?

Global Evidence:

Care work is Heavy and Unequal

Who works more?

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Advocacy work of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt

and Development (APMDD) - www.apmdd.org

• State-supported essential social services can reduce

women’s care labors and improve their quality of life. • Care work to be truly recognized as critical to human society

and should thus be a social and collective responsibility. • Care work must be integrated as part of a gender-aware

vision of the economy as the provisioning for all of human life, thus requiring the study of processes not only within and between the marketized parts of the economy and the government sector, but also those related to the non-monetized household sector.

Rapid Care Analysis – Oxfam projects in 20

countries UK

Bristol: Single Parents

Action Network, protecting

the rights and life chances

of single-parent families on

job-seeking benefits Azerbaijan

Barda: ‘SMART’

agricultural livelihoods

project and ending

violence against

women initiative

OPT

Gaza: Food processing

and ICT enterprise

development projects

Honduras

Copan: OCDIH, Nuevo

Amanecer, beans and

cornflour marketing

project

Guatemala

Rural Women's

Alliance, food security

campaign

Nicaragua

Chinandega,

Chontales, Leon:

Rural Women's

Coordination

Tanzania

Kishapu, Shinyanga:

Sustainable livelihoods

and sisal project

Sri Lanka

Omanthai and

Nedunkerney:

Sustainable livelihoods

in paddy and dairy

Philippines

Lanao del Sur,

Mindanao: Al Mujadilah

Development

Foundation (AMDF),

integral development

Bangladesh

Gaibandha: Gazaria

Union, sustainable

livelihoods in chillies

Nepal – post-earth-

quake recovery

Colombia

Patugó: Women’s

agricultural enterprise

project

Ethiopia, Uganda,

Zimbabwe, Zambia

Sierra Leone, Kenya

Malawi, Afghanistan

Example from Bangladesh

Women’s 84.5-hr

week Men’s 70-hr week

Unpaid

care

work:

57.75

Unpaid

care work:

7

Unpaid

community

work : 2

Unpaid

community

work: 3.5

Unpaid work

for producing

or home

consumption:

24.5

Unpaid work

for producing

or home

consumption:

7

Work to produce

products for

sale: 47.5-52

Work to produce

products for

sale: 0

Paid labour:

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Total work hours higher for women compared to

men

Women typically spend more time on unpaid care

work than on other forms of work (some exceptions in the Philippines)1

Women do significantly more simultaneous work than

men

Men had significantly more non-work time than

women

In all countries, focus group participants estimated

In all countries, focus group participants reported

Inequality in unpaid care was most acute between

younger women and younger men

Younger adult women do more unpaid care

than any other age group or category

After adult women, girls provide the most unpaid

care

Most Problematic Care Tasks

Focus group discussions identified problematic tasks

Water collection

Fuel/firewood collection

Meal preparation

Childcare

Other common activities mentioned were washing clothes,

accessing the grinding mill, etc.

Proposed Solutions

Improved access to water (piped water, water

tanks, water into houses) advocacy with

government

Fuel-efficient stoves (biogas, Lorena stoves)

Awareness-raising sessions to shift attitudes –

community dialogues, public communications

Electricity/solar panels

Other solutions proposed included cribs, family planning

and sharing responsibilities at the household level,

bicycles and air time (for mobile phones) for carers, and

childcare.

Collaborative interventions

Women’s

groups

Banks

Participants

identified

collaborations and

joint actions to

address care issues

Universities,

Schools

Government

ministries

Private

sector,

Employers

Local

government

Smallholders

Radio,

media

NGOs

Producer

groups

Religious

leaders

Traders

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Advocacy with local governments

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Complementary ways to address unpaid

care work:

1.Provision of accessible essential public services, including care services

2. Investing in time saving and labour saving equipment and infrastructure services

3. Investing in initiatives to shift perceptions, norms and gender roles and care

4.Provision of decent work for women that takes into account their unpaid care work responsibilities (e.g. Flexible work hours, decent and fair wages, maternity benefits, etc.)

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In the Pacific... Some reference points for the Pacific work on the Care economy:

Marilyn Waring (Counting Women’s Unpaid Work) who undertook a UNDP study in 2010 on ECONOMIC CRISIS AND UNPAID CARE WORK IN THE PACIFIC. See here http://marilynwaring.com/unpaidcarework.pdf

Under the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development – IWDA study on

double burden http://www.pacificwomen.org/resources/the-double-burden-impact-of-economic-empowerment-initiatives-on-womens-workload/ . In addition – this Pacific Women facility (DFAT funded 10-year project) is looking at Women’s Economic Empowerment as one of its key focus areas.

DAWN - check out Claire Slatter, Yvonne Underhill Sem (she is the co-chair

of the Oxfam NZ board) and Noelene Nabulivou. Yvonne’s paper on “Mobile, youthful and gendered: the social dimensions of inequality in the Pacific” https://nzadds.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/pre-sids-yus-formatted-for-upload.pdf

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IDS Video

“Who Cares: Unpaid care work, poverty and women's / girl's human rights”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVW858gQHoE

What is the role of different stakeholders (individually or collectively) to achieve large-scale progress in addressing unpaid care?

What is the High-Level Panel?

The mission of the High-Level Panel is to inform action by government, business and civil society to address constraints to create opportunities for women’s economic empowerment

The UN Secretary-General established the High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment in January 2016 as part of his efforts to ensure that the 2030 Agenda moves from the pages of UN documents into the lives of women - and builds stronger, more inclusive economies

Luis Guillermo Solís, Costa Rica

Simona Scarpaleggia, IKEA

Fiza Farhan, Independent Advisor

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank

Guy Ryder, ILO

Amadou Mahtar Ba, AllAfrica

Alicia Girón González, Economic Research Institute, Mexico

Christine Lagarde, IMF

Elizabeth Vazquez, WEConnect International

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation

Justine Greening, UK Michael Spence, NYU

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women

Renana Jhabvala, WIEGO/SEWA

Saadia Zahidi, World Economic Forum

Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania

Sharan Burrow, ITUC

Sheikha Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam

Tina Fordam, Citi Research

Members of the HLP Represent Diverse Sectors

Systemic Constraints Contribute to Persistent Gaps

Changing

business culture

and practice

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niz

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HLP WG on Unpaid and Paid Care Work – emerging

recommendations to the 2nd report

Main Recommendation is to move towards universal access to care, which requires care to be seen both as a right and a development strategy. This necessitates: 1. Recognizing the importance of care for individual and collective wellbeing

and for national economies, as well as ensuring that paid care is decent work and is properly valued;

2. Reducing the disproportionate amount of time women spend on unpaid domestic work, particularly when it involves drudgery, by increasing investments in infrastructure; and

3. Redistributing care work between the household, the state and the market through care services and between men and women.

4. Ensuring that organizations representing all workers, including care workers, and women’s rights organizations, can represent their needs and concerns in decision-making fora in the workplace, the community .

- the policy arena will be critical if we are to guarantee that care is

incorporated into policymaking and that paid and unpaid carers have a voice in establishing quality care and decent conditions of work.

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Specific recommendations to... Member States • Invest in household surveys to gain a better understanding of individual

and household needs and the impact of economic policies on human wellbeing, data should be used to inform public policy.

• Recognize that heavy and unequal care responsibilities affect livelihood

strategies, employment outcomes, economic growth, and sustainable poverty reduction. Consequently, addressing women’s heavy and unequal care responsibilities should be incorporated explicitly into employment, macroeconomic policy and poverty reduction strategies, and into relevant public declarations, and addressed by increased public investment.

• Invest in infrastructure and technologies that simultaneously reduce time

burdens and drudgery, particularly for the poorest women and households, curb carbon emissions and create jobs. Investment in water pumps, electricity, clean cookstoves, mini-grids, publicly and collectively owned mills and grinding machinery, and transport all have the potential to reduce drudgery, increase the efficiency of care work and free up time for other activities such as paid work, income generation, education, leisure and self-care.

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Specific recommendations to...

UN Agencies, Multilaterals and IFIs • Incorporate relevant unpaid care indicators in annually published

economic databases and monitoring and evaluations systems for investment and lending, and fund others to collect and monitor relevant data on unpaid care.

• Incorporate commitments and measures to address women’s heavy and unequal care work in core organisational policies and strategies.

• Prioritise grants and loans to support the development of inclusive and sustainable, social protection systems, including national social protection floors, and include care as a central component of social protection systems including care services along with health care and pensions. sustainable in every nation, including the least developed.

• Prioritise grants and loans to support poorer member states to invest in basic care-supporting infrastructure and care services that are affordable and accessible to poor women.

• Provide technical and financial support to increase representation of carers through local women’s rights and workers’ organisations, and decision-making structures

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Specific recommendations to ...

Private Sector Organizations • Invest in designing, producing and/or distributing low

energy usage, affordable time and labour saving equipment accessible to poor women in low income countries.

• Promote the redistribution of care between women and men, through advertising campaigns, community-based behaviour change, and flexible work-life balance policies at work.

• Private and public sector entities and unions should actively promote care committees that address care needs and concerns within employer institutions.

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Specific recommendations to... Civil Society Organizations • Civil society organizations, workers’ and employers’

organizations should support the greater representation of paid and unpaid carers, including women and migrant carers, throughout national and local governance, including in traditional governance structures. Migrant women should have representation in countries of origin and destination.

• Donors and civil society organizations should support

workers’ organizations and women’s rights organizations to call for greater national investments in the care economy and the creation of more decent work opportunities for women and men.

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Asia Regional Stakeholder Engagement Meeting , 19-20

Dec. 2016, Bangkok

Key recommendations: The care economy recognizing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work and paid care

1. Address inequality in unpaid care work through the provision of universal,

accessible, affordable and gender responsive public services such as water, sanitation, childcare, and health;

2. Unpaid care work should also be better accounted for in statistics and

included in the system of national accounts;

3. There is a need to advocate for policy changes in tax and fiscal policy that address gender discriminatory provisions, and that ensure adequate and predictable public resources for essential social service delivery;

4. There is a need to realize the rights of domestic workers as a key area for action in Asia. Majority of those who carry out domestic work are women who currently have insufficient legal or employment protections or wages. Governments ratifying ILO Convention 177 and 189, and civil society organising to call for this were identified as one priority in this area.

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