Summary_Service and Support for Unpaid care

Article “Summary on Service and Support for Unpaid care ”

Introduction

The articles provides a case for why addressing unpaid care work is important for achieving market systems outcomes and impacts, and provides learning from approaches to identify and diagnose unpaid care work and how it intersects with particular markets. 

Women make  significant,  unrecognised  contributions  to  local  economies,  and  to  economic development;  however  they  face  multiple  and  overlapping  barriers  to  realising  their  full potential  in  terms  of  access  to  education,  information,  and decision making  power.  Women’s participation rates in the labour force are still low because they frequently bear a disproportionate share of the burden of unpaid caregiving. Market systems approaches have been used as an enabler to women’s economic empowerment through addressing unpaid care work. 

Main Findings

1. Women still struggle to manage their work-life balance because of normative expectations that place the majority of the burden on them to care for their families and handle household duties even with the help of live-in hired is present
2. Market systems programmes are increasingly recognising the important role that women play in  market  activity  and  including  women’s  economic  empowerment  and  gender  equality objectives. 
3. One potentially effective strategy for improving care relationships and changing the gendered norms of care work is to provide education and training that supports women’s economic empowerment and redistributes unpaid care work.
4. Positive change in social and cultural norms, including the provision of education and training by governmental and religious authorities has been found to be one strategy for reducing unpaid care work. 
5. Family planning programs can ultimately play a crucial role in the socioeconomic empowerment of women and that modern contraceptives enable women to work in the labour market and earn an income for their work.

Conclusion

Unpaid care has a significant impact on how well markets operate and how much poor families can profit from markets.Programs that ignore this connection could have negative effects on market activities as well as social outcomes related to care.

Recommendation

1. Acknowledge the difficulties women entrepreneurs face in balancing their work and personal lives and to create programs and practical training to assist them in doing so
2. To effectively change attitudes toward unpaid care work, community-level strategies to address the issue are required. The use of audiovisual techniques, the media’s function, and programs that appeal to men and boys were all mentioned as potential change agents.
3. Recognise unpaid care work as work and production so that programs can modify interventions in light of a better understanding of care work or include compensation for the work
4. Reduce unpaid care work to lessen the burden of specific tasks. Interventions can help markets deliver a particular service, like healthcare, or a product, like fuel-efficient stoves, more effectively.
5. Access to modern contraception and realisation of ideal sexual and reproductive health to pave the way for women’s economic empowerment.