Accra: The Network for Women's Right in Ghana (Netright) has called for the formation of a National Care Policy to address the unequal burden of unpaid care work on women and adolescent girls in Ghana. It has also asked the government to place value on unpaid care work and quantify its contribution to national development in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to Ghana News Agency, unpaid care work refers to non-remunerated tasks and responsibilities carried out within households and communities that support the well-being of others. These tasks include caring for children, the elderly, and sick or disabled family members, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and other household chores, as well as collecting water and firewood and volunteering in community care.
Ms. Patricia Blankson Akakpo, the Executive Director of Netright, highlighted at a meeting in Accra that women in Ghana disproportionately bear the burden of unpaid care work, leading to time poverty and hindering their economic empowerment. She noted that women perform three times more unpaid work than men, which restricts their access to education, employment, and political and social participation, while also impacting their health and well-being.
The meeting, organized in partnership with Alinea International, a development consultancy firm, brought together civil society organizations, women's rights groups, and government institutions to contribute to Netright's work on unpaid care work and mobilize support for policy reforms. To mitigate the negative impact of unpaid work on women and girls, Netright is implementing the United for Care Sensitive Approaches to Rights and Empowerment (UCARE) project with funding from Global Affairs Canada.
Ms. Akakpo explained that the UCARE project aims to reduce the unequal and unfair burden of unpaid care work on women and adolescent girls in northern Ghana. The project is being implemented in 10 districts across the three regions of the north - Northern, North-East, and Savannah - to inform policy reforms.
Ms. Lydia Dogee, the Representative of Alinea International Ghana, mentioned that recent field studies conducted by the organization showed that unpaid care work is largely considered feminine work. She emphasized that out of an 18-hour workday for a woman, about 7.8 hours are devoted to unpaid care work, raising questions about the type of paid work women can engage in and how they achieve economic empowerment.
She further explained that the UCARE project uses an integrated approach to engage families and communities in recognizing unpaid care work and encouraging fair redistribution of household chores. Ms. Dogee emphasized that acts such as serving a good meal, guiding a child, comforting the sick, or cleaning a room should be viewed as acts of labor, not just acts of love.
Mrs. Abena A. Osei-Akoto, the Director of Survey and Census at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), presented data on unpaid care work, stating that globally, women perform over three times more unpaid care work than their male counterparts. She noted that the 2009 Ghana Time Use Survey remains the country's only comprehensive data source on unpaid care work, showing women spend more than double the time of men in these activities.
Mrs. Osei-Akoto also highlighted that the most recent Women's Living Standards Survey indicated 86.7 percent of the population aged 15 years and older are involved in unpaid care work, with 93 percent being females who spend 19 hours on these tasks. She observed that rural women spend 24.6 hours weekly on unpaid care work compared to their urban counterparts, with those lacking education more engaged in unpaid care work than educated individuals.
Mrs. Osei-Akoto called for care-sensitive policies, including social protection and infrastructure development, to reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women and girls.
