The National Steering Committee on the Unpaid Care and Domestic Work policy (UCDW) held a three-day stakeholder meeting at the Manzoni lodge in Machakos County with the objective to develop a road map for the development of the UCDW policy.
Speaking at the meeting CCGD Executive Director, Mr. Masheti Masinjila stated that policymakers should address issues concerning unpaid care work as it has implications on the achievement of gender equality. Weak policies, socio-gender cultural beliefs and practices and inadequate provision of care services contribute largely to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work by women.
Action Aid Kenya Executive Director, Ms. Susan Otieno urged the government to recognize, redistribute and remunerate unpaid care work. Adding that the 3Rs can only be achieved with support from the state and non-state actors.
While the UN Women representative, Ms. Maureen Gitonga commended Kenya’s ability to monitor gender-related data which has led to increased data collection and analysis resulting to filling gender data gaps across the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Time use survey will inform the development of the first national care policy in 2022 and shape the creation of the country’s first-ever satellite national account to measure unpaid care work as a priority in the fourth medium-term plan,” said Ms. Maureen.
Others present included representatives of Ministries and State Departments/Agencies; The University of Nairobi Women Economic Empowerment Hub (UON -WEE Hub and ICRW
The stakeholders called for quantifying the effect of unpaid care work through research.
CCGD is a member of the Steering committee on the development of a policy on unpaid care work.
By Getrude Angela
