Caring for caregivers: Developing a national policy for non-communicable disease caregivers in Kenya

Women and girls in Kenya providing unpaid care for persons living with non-communicable diseases (PLWNCDs) shoulder a disproportionate amount of care responsibilities. Caregiving for PLWNCDs entails significant socio-cultural, financial, emotional and psychological challenges, often leading to sacrifices in women’s education and career growth.

While current counseling services have shown promise in providing psychosocial support, there is need for a policy to recognize and institutionalize caregivers within the health-care system for greater impact on their wellbeing. This project aims to develop and advocate for a national caregivers policy that recognizes the value of unpaid non-communicable disease care work, reduces women’s and girls’ care burden, transforms gender norms and practices by involving men in care provision, and ultimately improves the rights and overall wellbeing of unpaid care providers.

This project is supported under the Scaling Care Innovations in Africa partnership co-funded by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC. Scaling Care Innovations is a five-year initiative aimed at scaling tested and locally grounded policy and program innovations to redress gender inequalities in unpaid care work in sub-Saharan Africa.