Addressing the intertwined care and climate crisis: Research for action

 

The care economy – including direct personal care provided to children, the elderly, people with disabilities or illness, and indirect care involving domestic work, such as cooking, cleaning, fetching wood or water, is vital to society. And yet it remains invisible, undervalued, and unevenly distributed. In Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, women spend between three to five times more hours on unpaid care and domestic work than men. Evidence shows the care economy is a systemic barrier for women’s economic empowerment and gender equality.

In addition, emerging evidence suggests that climate change and environmental degradation increase and intensify women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic, and communal work due in part to the increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate events and the reduced availability of natural resources such as firewood and water. Displacement and health impacts of climate change and environmental degradation also increase unpaid care work. At the same time, women are at the forefront of climate action given that many of their activities, such as composting or caring for water and biodiversity, also imply community-centred care work which is also unpaid. Ironically, these care responsibilities curtail women’s participation in climate decision-making and limit opportunities for them to engage in green jobs fostered by the low-carbon transition.

Given their interdependence for development, it is urgent to address paid and unpaid care and climate change together. Yet, the linkages between care and climate have been overlooked in policies, programs and research. Focussing on Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, this project will support development of empirical research to better understand the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on women’s and girls’ unpaid care, domestic and communal work. The goal is to generate evidence and action that will inform finance, programs and policies to address the dual care and climate crisis simultaneously for a just transition.