12-13 November 2024
15:00–17:30
Beirut time
Expert Group Meeting

Advancing care economy in the Arab region: underexplored areas

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  • Online
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ESCWA is organizing an expert group meeting to conduct in-depth discussions on underexplored care-related areas that ESCWA is currently working on, with the aim of including any ensuing recommendations within its technical papers. The meeting lays the foundation for implementing the resulting recommendations in the region to contribute to achieving gender equality and promoting economic growth and decent work.

The meeting is composed of five sessions, each revolving around a focus area ESCWA is currently pursuing: the first session tackles a policy framework for the economy of care to older persons and persons with disabilities; the second session explores boosting a diverse care economy sector; the third session focuses on social protection as a means to recognize unpaid care work; the fourth session examines the complex web of connections between care and public policies; and the fifth session delves into the potential contribution of investing in artificial intelligence to reduce unpaid care work.

Outcome document

The EGM was organized by ESCWA virtually on November 12 and 13, 2024. Experts on gender equality, women empowerment and care economy participated in the meeting. Underexplored care-related issues which ESCWA is working on and developing through papers and projects were presented. Feedback and insights were provided by the participating experts, allowing ESCWA to improve the ongoing work by capitalizing on the knowledge shared, and to take the ensuing recommendations into consideration for application in future work. 

The meeting discussed the following topics:

  • Older persons and persons with disabilities policy frameworks: focus on caregivers;
  • Advancing a diverse care economy sector;
  • Social protection as a means to recognize unpaid care work;
  • Care and public policies: a complex web of connections;
  • Investing in AI to reduce unpaid care work.
  • In the opening note, the importance of care as a public good essential for well-being, dignity, and human capital development was emphasized along with the importance of developing the care economy in the Arab region, especially since despite efforts by Arab governments to promote women’s economic empowerment, female labour force participation in the region remains below 20 per cent in 2024, with unpaid care work being a major barrier behind this challenge particularly in light of a limited care economy in the region.
  • The session highlighted the need to explicitly address caregivers’ needs and rights within national strategies for older persons and for persons with disabilities through the provision of policy suggestions targeting caregivers while preserving the dignity and well-being of care recipients.
  • The presentation provided the following recommendations: (i) shifting care policy implementation approach from an economy growth perspective to a human and women’s rights perspective; (ii) implementing family-friendly labour policies, including long-term care leave and flexible work arrangements; (iii) transitioning to a social protection system that recognizes unpaid care as work and includes it in the scope of coverage; (iv) developing national strategies for older persons and persons with disabilities that explicitly consider unpaid care providers needs and issues; (v) regularizing and improving the paid care sector.
  • Experts called for more comprehensive data collection at the individual and institution levels, stressed the necessity of improving the conditions of informal care workers, called attention to the political economy differences between Arab countries and underlined the need for a thorough analysis of non-contributory programs for older persons and persons with disabilities to identify gaps in coverage.
  • The session stressed the need to recognize unpaid care work, which is one of the main reasons for Arab women’s limited economic participation. Social protection systems were seen as an effective approach to acknowledge unpaid care work given the challenges of conducting time-use surveys regularly, calculating the value of unpaid care work, and integrating its value in national accounts.
  • Four pillars of interconnection between social protection and care were introduced: care leaves and benefits; the provision of high-quality, affordable, and accessible care services for both formal and informal workers; addressing social protection for paid care workers; the importance of pension contributions for caregivers, recognizing unpaid care work as legitimate labour and integrating it into social protection systems.
  • The presentation called for mainstreaming care in all social protection policies and measures, and for further exploring models that recognize care through social protection measures.
  • Experts noted the absence of family or child tax credits in the region, highlighted the importance of including migrant workers in contributory social insurance programmes, recommended non-contributory social assistance programs as more effective to address unpaid care work, identified public works programmes as a potential form of recognition, and recommended the reform of social insurance systems and the introduction of options allowing caregivers to continue contributing to social insurance during break periods.
  • The presentation highlighted the care sector’s potential as a key job provider and as an opportunity to unlock employment for women in other sectors, such as green and technology sectors.
  • The challenges facing unpaid caregivers resulting in devaluation of work, poor working conditions, and low wages in the paid care sector were presented.
  • Strengthening and diversifying the care economy to involve both women and men were recommended.
  • Experts called for a strong public sector role to ensure vulnerable populations have access to quality care, recommended tackling entrenched social norms within households to redistribute unpaid care work, addressing perception through education and media, improving working conditions in the care sector, reassessing the value of care work in a way that equalizes care employment with employment in male-dominated sectors and raising the status and wage of care work.
  • The presentation shed light on the complexity of the interconnections between public policies and care, focusing on how gender equality and women’s empowerment add additional layers to this web.
  • It stressed that implementing care policies in isolation would be insufficient, highlighting the need for complex, non-linear solutions, consisting in mainstreaming care into different public policies, and carefully examining and disentangling their interlinkages.
  • A care-centered strategic vision building on the five principles outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Women in the Arab World was proposed.
  • The development of a strategic vision for mainstreaming care into all public policies was recommended, guided by the four steps outlined in the Purple Economy (Care Economy +) policy brief by the United Nations Economist Network.
  • Participants emphasized the need for both dedicated care policies and mainstreaming care across sectors for effective care systems while noting the impact of the diversity in the Arab region on policy priorities. They called for the establishment of a national care body to coordinate efforts and stressed the importance of prioritizing the development of comprehensive care systems and integrating care into social protection and health policies.
  • The potential reduction in unpaid care work through investment in AI was introduced as a proposal under development by ESCWA and the Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Computing Hub at the American University of Beirut.
  • The presentation acknowledged the diverse needs in the region, the difference in the required solutions between rural and urban women and for the various groups of care recipients.
  • Four guiding pillars were outlined: the need to disentangle and categorize the nature of unpaid care tasks within households in the region; the worldwide mapping and categorization of existing solutions to reduce unpaid care work; facilitation of discussions and exchanges among key stakeholders, including private sector actors, institutions, and associations to raise awareness and push for the development of actionable solutions; and the development of a policy framework to encourage the private sector to actively contribute to developing these solutions.
  • Participating experts suggested the exploration of technologies other than AI, such as interactive care, highlighting good practices from different countries. They cited the risks of AI in excluding marginalized groups and stressed that reduction measures should focus on time saving without overlooking the value of unpaid care work.
  • Experts were thanked for their constructive contributions throughout the discussions which provided key insights into successes, challenges, and recommendations, which will be taken into consideration in the finalization of the papers and projects. The importance of continued collaboration and open communication throughout care-related endeavours was stressed.

Initiatives: Care systems for women’s economic participation

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