27-29 January 2026
9:00–16:00
Beirut time
Workshop

Consultation on the care economy in Tunisia

Location
  • Tunisia
Contact information
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ESCWA and UN-Women are holding a consultation on the care economy in Tunisia to raise awareness on its importance in achieving sustainable development and to roll-out an initiative to identify policy priorities for its advancement. 

The consultation involves sector stakeholders, including parliamentarians, concerned ministries, civil society, academia, and relevant international organizations. It is conducted over three days, with the first day dedicated to public institutions and parliamentarians, the second focused on trade unions and employers' organizations, and the third targeting civil society and the international community.

Outcome document

ESCWA and UN WOMEN – both the regional office for Arab States and the national country office in Tunisia – organized a national consultation on the care economy in Tunisia from 27 to 29 January 2026. The consultation was attended by parliamentarians, representatives from the private sector, trade unions and employers’ organizations, civil society, international community and international partners. 

The consultation was structured around three main themes, addressed over the three days:

• The first day focused on the legal framework and public policies governing the care sector, and their impact on women's economic empowerment, in a setting of consultation with parliamentarians.

• The second day revolved around care services and working conditions, with an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities for women in the private sector.

• The third day tackled social norms, the distribution of care responsibilities, and women's economic participation, based on field experiences and interventions by civil society and the international community.

Each day combined presentations on the global, regional, and national context in addition to two participatory activities enabling participants to map existing legislative frameworks, analyze institutional, political, and social constraints, and formulate concrete proposals for improvement and reform.

A presentation of the global frame on advancing care economy was made by ESCWA to introduce common concepts. The presentation introduced the overarching care economy framework, highlighting required public policies, interconnected care challenges, and the need for a clear strategic vision and agenda adapted to the regional context.

A presentation on the care economy in the Arab region and the regional roadmap was made by UN WOMEN’s regional office for Arab States. It provided an overview of the regional care economy framework in Arab countries, showcased recent policy advances (such as extended parental leave and childcare support), the importance of legal frameworks, and introduced the regional roadmap led by international and regional partners.

UN WOMEN’s country office in Tunisia introduced the national care economy framework, emphasizing its potential to create decent jobs for women, address persistent gender gaps in labor force participation, and contribute to employment growth through priority sectors including care, green economy, and STEM. The preliminary study findings on the care economy were also presented, covering market assessment results, women’s participation, public–private gaps, and the identification and prioritization of care-related value chains and intervention opportunities.

  • Participants highlighted structural challenges in the care economy, including weak institutional coordination, rising care needs due to population ageing, persistent gender inequalities in unpaid care work, and the absence of national strategies, data, and adequate care systems—particularly for children with disabilities and older persons with complex health conditions.
  • Discussions stressed the need for a coherent and cross-sectoral approach to care policies, including clearer definitions of care work, stronger legal frameworks for service provision, adaptation of international standards to national contexts, and the central role of legislators in advancing legal reforms.
  • The first activity mapped the legal and policy framework of the care economy, identifying existing laws, actors, advances, and gaps across care services, labor regulation, social protection, and responsibility-sharing, while noting progress alongside major implementation, financing, training, and coverage gaps.
  • The second activity examined institutional and policy constraints affecting women’s economic empowerment and proposed reform priorities, including legal harmonization, improved implementation, professional training, expanded care services, stronger social protection, better coordination, increased male engagement in care, and the role of education in shifting social norms.
  • Discussions explored the potential and challenges of the care economy, focusing on the implementation of employment quotas for persons with disabilities and the barriers limiting effectiveness, including inadequate infrastructure, transport accessibility, support services, and skills development.
  • Emphasis was placed on the need to consider both care recipients and care providers, highlighting the importance of protecting the rights, working conditions, and social protection of those delivering care services, whether paid or unpaid.
  • The first activity allowed private sector actors to share practices promoting workplace equality and women’s inclusion, such as parental leave policies, flexible work arrangements, and awareness-raising on maternity, while also noting persistent legal, financial, and cultural constraints and the role of media, education, and feminist movements in shifting norms.
  • The second activity proposed short- and medium-term private sector solutions structured around awareness and education, skills development, gender-responsive workplace policies, fiscal incentives for care services, and strengthened legal and institutional frameworks, including alignment with international labor standards.
  • Discussions highlighted Latin America’s pioneering experience as a key source of inspiration, while noting persistent cultural barriers to the use of childcare and eldercare services, particularly affecting young mothers and women in agriculture, and identifying awareness-raising as a critical lever for change.
  • The first activity, drawing on field experiences, identified major constraints in the care economy, including weak implementation and monitoring of legal frameworks, patriarchal norms, invisibility and precarity of care work, uneven quality and availability of services, and the disproportionate care responsibility borne by women—especially rural and divorced women—undermining their well-being, employment, and economic autonomy.
  • The Spanish experience (Spanish Cooperation’s feminist cooperation strategy) was presented, framing care as a pillar of social justice and democracy rather than a private issue, and outlining a care-centered approach based on rights, representation, resources, and alliances, with actions focused on mapping inequalities, building a care society, transitioning toward community-based care, and institutionalizing care systems.
  • The second activity prioritized challenges and proposed time-phased solutions, including short-term actions to improve legal awareness and coordination, medium-term reforms to recognize care as a professional sector and integrate it into social protection, and long-term strategies centered on education, media, and a comprehensive national care strategy covering paid and unpaid care work.

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