Addressing Unpaid Care and Domestic Work for a Gender-equal and Inclusive Kenya: WE-Care policy briefing

Care work is the heartbeat of every society: it contributes to our wellbeing as a nation and is crucial for our social and economic development. Yet the disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work results in time poverty and significant opportunity costs, particularly among the poorest and most marginalized women and girls. This policy brief outlines why unpaid care work is a critical development, economic and gender equality issue for Kenya. It draws on two sets of evidence from Oxfam’s Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) programme, which explore the impact of women and girls’ heavy and unequal unpaid care responsibilities both before and during COVID-19.