Protecting children’s rights should be central to the care economy

Every day, sixteen billion hours are spent on unpaid care work, representing a tenth of the world’s economic output. Along with paid care work, it’s also possibly one of the most overlooked sectors of the global economy. A key driver of human wellbeing, this neglected, and often hidden part of our economic tapestry, is vital. Care work encompasses both paid and unpaid forms of work, spanning across formal and informal settings, and includes many domestic responsibilities and caregiving tasks for individuals such as children, the elderly, and those with special needs. Whether the work takes place at home (such as cooking, cleaning, gathering water or fuel, or tending to family members) or outside of the home (including paid employment), the work often goes unnoticed, undervalued, and unpaid or underpaid.

The care economy is critical to sustaining families, communities, and the global economy. Although COVID-19 highlighted this critical point all too clearly for many of us, it isn’t a priority for many investors.

Gender lens investors are starting to look at the care economy as a critical lever to drive change towards gender equality. However, few impact investors are considering the transformative impact potential of integrating a child rights lens into their investments in the care economy. For those looking to bring a child rights lens to their care economy efforts, we think the Global Child Forum Benchmark is a great place to start.

We know that the disproportionate burden of work in the care economy falls on women and girls. Women are more likely than men to take time out of the workforce or reduce hours to care for children or other family members. According to data from the International Labour Organization, women and girls dedicate an average of 3.2 times more time to household tasks compared to men. While much of the work in the care economy goes unrecognized, researchers estimate that women’s unpaid contributions to all types of care is valued at US$11 trillion globally, or 9% of global GDP. By comparison, as of 2021, agriculture accounts for just 4.3% of global GDP.

 But what isn’t well recognized or understood is how pivotal care economy solutions are in promoting and protecting child rights.

1. Children also bear the burden of unpaid work in the care economy. A significant number of children, especially girls, under the age of 18, perform household tasks, administer medication, provide personal care, care for siblings, and more. In the United States, for example, it is estimated that 5.4 million children are providing unpaid care. These young caregivers can spend between 14-27 hours a week on care responsibilities; however, we know the amount of time children spend on caregiving responsibilities is underestimated. As a result, child caregivers face obstacles in acting on their right to protection, development, and participation.
2. The dual burden of caregiving and working can be detrimental to child rights. Many working caregivers, particularly women, shoulder the dual burden of caregiving and engaging in decent employment. Evidence suggests that this increases stress, anxiety, and burnout among female caregivers in particular, with negative impacts on their own mental wellbeing, as well as the dependents in their care. In addition to hindering women’s career advancement opportunities and negative outcomes for their mental health, balancing these responsibilities can affect their ability to provide a nurturing environment for any children they choose to have. In some cases, it may mean children are left without quality care.
3. Child labour and the care economy intersect. When caregiving is undervalued and underpaid, it reinforces gender inequalities. Consequently, children, especially girls, may be withdrawn from school and required to work to assist with caregiving duties, increasing child labor. Poverty and inadequate access to social protection systems, including healthcare, parental leave, and affordable childcare, can push families to involve their children in labor to meet basic needs.
4. Valuing care providers has a significant impact on the quality-of-care children receive. Care economy workers in markets such as childcare, health care and education are foundational for children to realize their rights. Care economy solutions that value their work and ensure decent work conditions boosts job satisfaction, motivation, and retention. Strong and stable care services for children translates directly into the quality of care children receive and also frees up parents’ time (particularly women’s) to pursue economic and other meaningful opportunities.

As a nonprofit think tank dedicated to reimagining finance as a tool for social change, Criterion Institute is shifting how investors make investment decisions and structure investments. Building on more than two decades of work in gender lens investing, we are excited to bring a child lens to innovative finance. Commitments to transform the care economy offer an exciting opportunity to examine how gender lens investing and child lens investing intersect in meaningful ways – acknowledging the nuanced mechanisms that underpin tangible results for both gender equality and child wellbeing.

We believe adopting an integrated child rights approach, alongside women’s rights and care economy solutions could have a compounding effect and drive even greater gender equality and child wellbeing, alongside healthy financial returns.

We already see the effects of these lenses being adopted in isolation from one another: companies investing in policies related to the care economy are seeing improvements in financial performance, cost savings, and retention of women. Similarly, Global Child Forum data suggests that companies that are better at addressing child rights have lower staff turnover, attract higher quality workforce, ensure a sustainable supply of goods, discover new opportunities and provide better support to their future workforce as they mature and learn. Imagine the compounding impact we could achieve by intentionally integrating these two lenses?

Increasing initiatives such as paid sick leave, expanded family leave, provision of on-site childcare or increase funding for childcare and eldercare has a transformative potential for reimagining the care economy. While there are many places to start, the Global Child Forum Benchmark gives a great overview of what companies are doing related to workplace policies, stable home environments, and broader community impacts in areas such as healthcare and education. With this great resource in hand, there are opportunities to integrate child-rights focused care solutions at both organizational and portfolio levels.

As Criterion Institute partners to build the field of child lens investing, we invite others to join us in reimagining what is possible. What other actions can investors take to promote and protect child rights?