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Making Care Visible

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<p>[File file=Making care visible ActionAid.gif|right]
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<div id="toc"><h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_about"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">About</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_what-is-unpaid-care-work"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">What is unpaid care work?</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_introduction"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Introduction</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_a-multi-country-programme"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">A multi-country programme</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_references"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div><h2 id="w_about">About</h2>
<p>This ActionAid report published in February 2013 looks at women's unpaid care work in [Pagelink infos="Gender Equality in Nepal"], [Pagelink infos="Gender Equality in Gender Equality in Nigeria"], [Pagelink infos="Gender Equality in Uganda"] and [Pagelink infos="Gender Equality in Kenya"]. The report shows that women living in poverty carry heavier workloads than men in all four countries, across both rural and urban communities. Their responsibility for unpaid care work means they have less time to take care of themselves, rest and engage in paid work or subsistence agriculture.
</p>
<h2 id="w_what-is-unpaid-care-work">What is unpaid care work?</h2>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><i>The term ‘unpaid’ differentiates this care from paid care provided by employees in the public and NGO (non-governmental organisation) sectors and employees and self-employed persons in the private sector. The word ‘care’ indicates that the services provided nurture other people. The word ‘work’ indicates that these activities are costly in time and energy and are undertaken as obligations (contractual or social).</i> <br />
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</dd></dl>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><dl><dd><dl><dd> <i>UN Women, Progress of the World’s Women 2000: UNIFEM Biennial Report</i>
</dd></dl>
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<p><i><br /></i>
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<h2 id="w_introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p>Care is around us everywhere – from the mother who 
takes care of her children, to the wife who cooks her 
family’s meals, the eldest daughter who helps with the 
housework, and the widow who works in the community 
kitchen.
</p><p>These different caring activities are essential to maintaining our societies and across 
the world are primarily done by women and girls. When this work is carried out in the 
person’s own home and is unpaid, it is not reflected in national statistics or economic 
analyses, despite its centrality to our day-to-day wellbeing. It is perceived to be less 
valuable than paid work and it is ignored and not considered to be “work” even by the 
women and men who engage in and benefit directly from these activities. In part 
because it is invisible in national statistics and less valued, local and national authorities 
generally fail to design social and economic policies that can reduce women’s primary 
responsibility for unpaid care work.
</p><p>While all women regardless of class, race, caste and ethnicity are expected to provide 
care as part of their roles as mothers, wives, and daughters, women living in poverty 
are disproportionately affected by this responsibility. Unpaid care is more difficult 
to do in the context of poverty as basic amenities, and access to public services 
are lacking. Further, the income needed to purchase goods and services to undertake 
care work may not be available. Women must then rely on their own labour to provide 
the care that is required. Many women living in poverty carry the dual responsibilities 
for both unpaid care work and earning an income or subsistence farming. Women’s 
responsibility for care leads to the violation of their basic human rights to an 
education, political participation, decent work and leisure. It contributes to persistent 
gender inequalities.
</p>
<h2 id="w_a-multi-country-programme">A multi-country programme</h2>
<p>ActionAid designed a multi-country programme in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda 
and Kenya focused on women’s unpaid care work to respond to these rights
violations with the aim of making this work more visible and valued by women and 
men, community leaders and government. It is part of ActionAid’s commitment 
outlined in the organisation’s 2012-2017 strategy to make women’s unpaid care work 
central to demands for quality public services financed through more progressive 
domestic resource mobilisation. The programme was inspired by the efforts of some 
national governments to measure time use and make visible women’s overall workload 
including their work in their own households. National time use surveys are used 
to measure unpaid care work that is currently not included in the national accounts 
which underlie calculations of gross domestic product. ActionAid sought to transform 
this statistical tool into a participatory time diary tool that could be completed by the 
women and men involved in the programme. The intention was that in using the tool 
women and men would begin to “see” the time and energy required to do unpaid care 
work and the effect this has on women’s wellbeing and fulfilment of their human rights. 
The data collected show that in poor rural and urban areas women work 
longer hours than men, spend more time on unpaid care work and subsistence 
agriculture, and have less time to engage in paid work and social and cultural 
activities.
</p>
<h2 id="w_references">References</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.actionaid.org/publications/making-care-visible" alt="Making Care Visible: the full report">Making Care Visible: the full report</a>
</li></ul>
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