Recognise, Reduce, Reward, Redistribute: Mapping Care Economy Opportunities Through the 4Rs Framework
Paid and unpaid care and domestic work are vital to both the economy and society; yet they remain invisible, undervalued and under-rewarded, and unevenly distributed. In the first of a series of blogs, Rebecca Calder, Emily Boost and Aurelie Faugier at Kore Global present a framework to help define investable care economy opportunities as part of their ecosystem mapping work.
Care and domestic work responsibilities fall disproportionately on women and girls, especially in the global south. This uneven distribution of labour contributes to maintaining gender inequalities and is a barrier to women’s full economic empowerment.
In Latin America, Asia and Africa, women spend between three to five times as many hours on unpaid care and domestic work than men, performing 80 percent of the total hours devoted to unpaid care work in the household. While all women regardless of class, race, caste and ethnicity are expected to provide care as part of their roles as mothers, wives, and daughters, women living in poverty are disproportionately affected by this responsibility as basic amenities, and access to public services are often lacking. Further, the income needed to purchase goods and services to undertake care work may not be available.
What do we mean by the “Care Economy”?
There are many definitions and understanding of what is or isn’t part of the care economy. We’ve defined it as all paid and unpaid labour and services that support caregiving in all its forms. This includes:
1. often invisible, undervalued and unpaid care work (of persons such as children, the elderly, persons with illnesses or disabilities, and others) and domestic work (cleaning, cooking, laundry, fetching water and fuel, etc.); and
2. more visible, but still undervalued and often underpaid care and domestic work in the informal and formal economy.
We have identified 3 main pathways to impact for market solutions in the care economy (see our Theory of Change figure right). The fundamental first step, which we see as underpinning the below 3 pathways, is recognise.
Reduce: Products, services and initiatives that reduce the time and burden of unpaid care and domestic work. For example, Eau et Vie develops water networks in slum areas in Bangladesh and the Philippines, where the public operators do not reach, to provide affordable and sustainable tap water at home. This enables time savings for women and reduces drudgery in accessing water from inconvenient locations.
Reward: Products, services and initiatives that ensure that care and domestic workers are paid fairly and can progress in their careers, providing them with financial reward and security. For example, Symplifica is a women-owned app in Colombia that makes the process of formalising domestic workers easier - enabling employers to enroll them on a platform connected to the social security system, which provides the payment of salary, contributions and benefits.
Redistribute: Products, services and initiatives that: 1) Redistribute care work from individuals to public and private sector entities, and/or 2) Redistribute care and domestic work within the household. For example, AgeWatch Africa Foundation (AAF) is a social enterprise whose mission is to provide compassionate and high-quality care to the elderly in rural Kenya. By providing a variety of care services including home care, group day-care, and residential care facilities, AAF redistributes the unpaid care work away from households with elderly.
Mapping Care Economy Businesses
Kore Global is leading a consortium of five research partners to conduct a global research project on investable businesses in the care economy sector in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
While innovative market-based solutions exist and are increasing, there is a clear knowledge gap preventing private investment into these businesses, and preventing their growth and replication. Our goal is to transform the care economy through identifying, documenting and amplifying market based solutions that recognise, and reduce, redistribute and reward unpaid and paid care and domestic work.
Mapping the care economy along key impact pathways (Kore Global)
In the first phase of our research, we mapped 165 businesses across all three regions, impact pathways and types of interventions. These businesses are all operating in the project target countries; their activities are aligned with the project theory of change; they are at least at launch stage (not concept stage); and they are market-based interventions - financially profitable, or planning to be in the medium term. The list of 165 businesses can be found on the Care Economy Knowledge Hub. Key findings include:
1: LatAm Focus
A majority of the mapped businesses are in Latin America. Colombia and Mexico alone bring 70% of the eligible businesses mapped for Latin America, and one third of the 165 businesses. There are multiple drivers behind this. Firstly, these markets have an important wealth gap, while still having a strong middle class. Secondly, they are dynamic markets, receiving a lot of foreign investment. Thirdly, the population of Latin America is aging and there are a lot of solutions offering elderly care (21% of the Latam portfolio), which are less prevalent in the African and Asian contexts. Africa and Asia elderly care businesses are only 10% of their portfolio.
2: Reduce and Reward
The majority of businesses aim at reducing the burden of care and domestic work, either alone (40% are “reduce-only” businesses) or alongside other pathways (35%). 25% of the businesses include a reward component in their business model, making upskiling and formalisation of the care economy a key priority.
3: Childcare Dominates
Infant and child care occupy a majority of the services provided, with close to 30% of the businesses offering infant and/or childcare solutions. Second are labour saving solutions (25%). Domestic services come next, with 18% of the businesses providing this.
4: Female Founders
48% of the businesses are founded by at least one woman. This number is much higher for Africa businesses (63%) and lower for Asia businesses (40%).
Addressing all aspects of paid and unpaid care work is complex, and close to half (46%) of our businesses take several impact pathways to tackle multiple issues at once. One example is Mother Goose Kenya, a community-based organization (CBO) in the parenting and quality childcare solutions market. It provides training and placements linking services to caregivers, rewarding them with better skills and better job opportunities. The enterprise offers development of onsite daycare centers that enable women with young children to redistribute childcare work to a private entity. The services also reduce the burden of unpaid care work on families.
Sabrina Habib, co-founder of Kidogo, acknowledges this complexity as one of the greatest challenges, and emphasizes a need for a systemic approach that tackles multiple pathways. “Care in general is complex. It’s not a single text message or training. So [it’s about] working across sectors - health, nutrition, child protection, safety, infrastructure - and balancing the needs of children, mothers, and care workers to ensure it can be accessible for all.”
Over the next few months, Kore Global will begin phase 2 of their research - producing in-depth business profiles for 60 businesses with the biggest potential to advance girls’ and women’s empowerment. Watch out for the next blog where they will present the top 60 businesses and dive into each of the 3 impact pathways, exploring the different ways in which businesses are approaching related care economy challenges across the globe. Thank you to IDRC, Generation Foundation, and Soros Economic Development Fund (from OSF) for supporting this work, and the Care Economy Working Group.