Care Work Is Real Work

Today is the International Day of Care and Support. Last year the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed October 29 as a day to “raise awareness of the importance of care and support and its key contribution to the achievement of gender equality and the sustainability of our societies and economies, as well as of the need to invest in a resilient and inclusive care economy, including the development of strong and resilient care and support systems.” Coincidentally, today is also the last day of the 4th International Development Assistance (IDA) replenishment meeting, with the aim of finalizing the policy package for the current replenishment cycle of the World Bank’s concessional lending arm for lower-income countries (IDA21).  

As we observe the International Day of Care and Support today, there’s lots to celebrate in terms of global progress towards recognizing the importance of care work and investment in the care economy, but there are also many reminders of how far we still need to go. I was struck by one example during a flagship event on Women Transforming the World, organized by the World Bank to kick off a day focused on gender equality as part of its annual meetings last week. The event featured a discussion between World Bank President Ajay Banga and Sandra Ablamba Johnson (Togo’s Minister, Secretary General of the Presidency), Adebayo Olawale Edun (Nigeria’s Minister of Finance), and Anneliese Dodds (the United Kingdom’s Minister for Development and for Women and Equalities). Although the event started out on an auspicious note, I winced at Banga’s mention of “real work” in his remarks. Here’s what he said: 

“At the end of the day, the productivity and capacity of women to change our future is second to none and the reason is very simple. They bring up our families, they bring up our cultures, they bring up our values. They end up doing a lot of informal work. If we can convert that informal work to leadership and real work, and if we can do it in a constructive way where nobody feels that somebody else is being denied an opportunity because someone else is being given one, but just that everybody is getting a level playing field that they deserve to be able to run and win, then I believe we can unlock enormous opportunity and enormous potential for the future.” [My emphasis] 

This insinuation that the informal work of bringing up families, cultures, and values is less real than the formal work of paid employment reflects a crucial mindset shift that still needs to happen. Care work is real work. It may be informal and undervalued, but it is real work. 

The big reveal at the annual meetings event was Banga’s announcement of three targets the World Bank has set towards advancing gender equality by 2030: enabling 300 million more women to use broadband, supporting 250 million women with social protection programs, and providing capital to 80 million more women and women-led businesses. Disappointingly, none of these commitments address the undervaluation of care work. My colleagues at CGD have written a blog post and a policy note on how IDA21 could offer a powerful tool to promote gender equality by including a commitment to expand access to care services, particularly in situations affected by fragility, conflict, or violence. CGD also hosted an engaging panel discussion on IDA’s new approach to results management last week, which addressed these issues further (you can watch the event here if you missed it). We will soon know whether the IDA21 policy package will include a commitment on care. Although initial indications have not been promising, I remain optimistic that the World Bank and other actors in the global economy will continue to do more real work to promote gender equality by making strong commitments to ensure adequate recognition of the importance of care work and by increasing their investments in the global care ecosystem.  

On that note, I encourage you all to join us for our upcoming event introducing the Global Roadmap for Action on the Care Economy on Thursday October 31, to learn more about ways we all can work together to transform the global care economy. Happy International Day of Care and Support!