Vital for our society to function, the care economy – domestic work and caring for children, elderly people, and people with disabilities – as it is now, operates as one of the most pervasive structural barriers to women’s economic autonomy and gender equality.
Canada’s International Development Research Centre, in partnership with the Soros Economic Development Fund at the Open Society Foundations, provided a grant to Kore Global to lead a research consortium including Intellecap, CoreWoman, Busara, and Sagana to map, profile, and systematically review care economy business models in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. This included the production of fifty-nine care economy business profiles and a unique and in-depth collection of 20 case studies. The knowledge and evidence generated shed much needed light on innovative and emerging private business models for the provision of quality and affordable care services and decent job opportunities for care and domestic workers.
The project took place from October 2021 to March 2024 and provided insights into businesses that: 1. create products to reduce the time spent on and burden of unpaid care and domestic work; 2. offer services that redistribute care work from individuals to public and private sector entities, and support initiatives to redistribute care and domestic work within the household; 3. that increase the visibility and recognition of paid and unpaid care and domestic activity as “productive” work that creates real value and contributes to economies and societies; and 4. that create products, services and initiatives that ensure that care and domestic workers are rewarded through fair pay, good working conditions, and personal and professional growth opportunities.
The research project generated high-quality and actionable evidence on the financial viability and social and environmental benefits of businesses operating in the care economy, which is essential for impact investors to make evidence-based decisions on investments that hold the potential for combining both business benefits and development gains.
Our Project Hub provides more information about this research. A mapping of over 150 businesses in the care economy across all 3 project regions, 59 business profiles, and 20 case studies can be found there. We have also produced a number of blogs:
- Mapping Care Economy Opportunities Through the 4Rs Framework
- Investing in the care economy for a feminist economic transition and a quadruple win
- No longer undervalued, underpaid and unprotected
- Recognising and rewarding care: a game changer for paid care and domestic workers
- Celebrating International Domestic Workers’ Day: Spotlight on Jazza Centre and Fair Employment Foundation
- Care enterprises founded by women are transforming the care economy and lifting other women
Kore Global also contributed to briefs on Investing in the care economy: a primer for gender-smart investors and Engaging with the care economy: a guide for investors, employers, and corporate actors.
