Business Environment Reforms and the Care Economy: The Case of Childcare and Parental Leave Policies

Care economy is an integral part of Business Environment Reforms (BER). It is central to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE).

In its broad definition, the term care economy encompasses labour and services that support caregiving in all its forms. It includes both unpaid and paid care work, for instance childcare and breastfeeding, care for the elderly, care for persons with disabilities, etc. It includes also value chains that rely on care workers, such as healthcare, domestic care, childcare, etc. as well as care-relevant infrastructures, services and technology, such as facilities and applications to mobilise and perform care services.

Care work consists of paid and unpaid labour and services that support caregiving in all its forms. While care work, paid and unpaid, sustains economies by providing essential services for the household and the society, this work falls disproportionately on women and young girls in all countries, including in the ACP region. Unpaid care workload is the principal reason unemployed women give globally as a reason for being outside the labour force.

The gender inequalities on the share of unpaid care negatively affect women’s possibilities to make economic choices that could strengthen their own economic empowerment, but also the wellbeing of their families and the growth of the overall economy.

Gender-responsive care policies can be powerful tools to reform the business environment in ways that positively impact women and their access to economic opportunities, such as access to quality jobs, entrepreneurship or education and professional training. A particularly important lever to improve the business environment for women is childcare policies for working parents, specifically the provision of childcare services and parental leave.