The African Regional Organisation of the [International Trade Union Confederation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InternationalTradeUnion_ Confederation), known as ITUC-Africa, has sounded an urgent warning regarding a deepening care crisis across the continent. The labour body highlighted that countless women and young girls face systemic barriers to employment, formal education, and financial independence due to the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic and care responsibilities placed upon them.
Marking the International Day for Care and Support under the theme “Building Sustainable Care and Support Systems Through Decent Work,” ITUC-Africa General Secretary Akhator Joel Odigie emphasised that care remains largely undervalued in national budgets despite being the backbone of every society. The organisation urged governments, the African Union, and regional economic blocs to commit immediate resources toward sustainable care systems and the enforcement of labour standards.
Why is unpaid care work a major barrier?
According to the labour coalition, African women dedicate more than three times as many hours as men to unpaid care tasks. This structural inequality heavily restricts female participation in the formal labour market, with over one-third of African women outside the workforce citing care duties as their primary exclusion factor, compared to fewer than one in twenty men.
Young women, particularly in rural settlements, bear an even heavier toll. In rural parts of West Africa, young females spend up to four times as long on unpaid domestic chores as their male counterparts. This severe time deficit curtails their ability to acquire formal education, complete vocational training, secure meaningful employment, or engage in trade union activities.
What are the challenges facing paid care workers?
Beyond unpaid labour, professionals within the care economy—such as community health workers, domestic staff, early childhood educators, and nurses—endure severe workplace hardships. Most of these workers are women, including many migrants, who operate within the informal sector without basic social security, earning meager wages while facing constant exposure to harassment and occupational hazards.
“Domestic workers, community health workers, early childhood educators, nurses and home-based carers, most of them women and many of them migrants, too often work informally, for poverty wages, without social protection, and exposed to violence and harassment,” the organisation stated.
ITUC-Africa warned that poor employment standards for care providers invariably lead to substandard care services for the broader population. Furthermore, Africa currently maintains the weakest care infrastructure globally, even as demand surges due to population growth, urbanisation, and aging demographics.
What solutions are being proposed?
To reverse this trend, ITUC-Africa has demanded that African states establish accessible and affordable public care services. Authorities were urged to finance robust childcare facilities, long-term health services, and essential utilities like clean water and electricity to cut down domestic labour hours.
The organisation also advocated for the full adoption of the 5R framework alongside the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines on the care economy. Key demands include ratifying critical ILO treaties such as Convention No. 189 on Domestic Workers, Convention No. 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities, and Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment.
Concluding its address, ITUC-Africa pledged to step up efforts to unionise informal care workers and young women to amplify their collective bargaining power, insisting that revamping the care sector is vital for achieving true social justice and gender parity across the continent.