Infrastructure and Equipment for Unpaid Care Work: Household survey findings from the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe – 2017 Household Care Survey report

Abstract

Care work is essential for personal wellbeing and for maintaining societies and a significant component of the economy. But across the world, it is overwhelmingly done by women, which restricts their opportunities for education, employment, political engagement and leisure. Policy makers rarely recognize the public responsibility for facilitating unpaid care and domestic work through investments in infrastructure and care services. In 2017, Oxfam's Women's Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) initiative conducted a Household Care Survey (HCS), collecting data in the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to inform the design of public policies and local development programmes. Based on responses from 4,734 women, men, boys and girls from 1,688 households, the study tests which infrastructure, equipment and other factors influence care-work patterns. The research finds that access to improved water sources is associated with reductions in hours of care work, and household equipment facilitates men's participation in care. Women report injuries and harm linked to heavy workloads. Perceptions of care work, community expectations and fear of sanctions for deviating from gendered care roles, i.e. social norms regarding gendered care roles, play an essential part in maintaining the gendered division of care work. The report suggests that further research is needed to explore in more detail the effect of public infrastructure and equipment on care-work divisions. In 2017, the HCS was conducted in the new districts of the Philippines, Zimbabwe and Uganda with support from Unilever, its laundry brand Surf and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Economic burden of the persistent morbidity of nodding syndrome on caregivers in affected households in Northern Uganda

“…Activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), as well as household activities of daily living (HDL) of caregivers were assessed using the 'monetary valuation of informal care using the opportunity cost and proxy good methods sections' of the iMTA Valuation of Informal Care Questionnaire (iVICQ) [29]. However, the HDL and ADL questions have been adapted to the Ugandan situation based on the Oxfam survey in the Philippines, Uganda, and Zimbabwe [30]. A detailed description of the ADL, IADL and HDL activities is presented in Table 1.…”

Spot phone calls: A new method for measuring time use

“…Lucia Aline Rost https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1191-572X Notes 1. The WE-Care initiative aims to develop strategies to address women's 'heavy' and 'unequal' care and domestic work and has implemented research and programmes in different countries (see Karimli et al, 2016;Rost and Koissy-Kpein, 2018).…”

“… 1. The WE-Care initiative aims to develop strategies to address women’s ‘heavy’ and ‘unequal’ care and domestic work and has implemented research and programmes in different countries (see Karimli et al, 2016; Rost and Koissy-Kpein, 2018). As part of the WE-Care initiative, time-use data were collected in northern Uganda through two household surveys and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).…”

Addressing Unpaid Care to Close the Gender Gap in the Philippines and Zimbabwe: The Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care Project Report, 2016–2019

“…In low-income settings such as Zimbabwe and the Philippines, where essential public services are lacking and tasks such as collecting water and firewood are particularly heavy and timeconsuming, women do up to 5-6 times as much UCDW as men. 2 The Women's Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) programme has been working since 2013 to reignite progress on gender equality by addressing heavy and unequal unpaid care work. UCDW reinforces every aspect of gender inequality as it restricts women and girls' access to education, healthcare, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes, often limiting employment opportunities and leading to overrepresentation in insecure, part-time work.…”