Introduction
Why should cities care?
Caring cities, inclusive cities, connected cities, just cities — local governments play a key role in improving the quality of life for all. Cities and metropolitan governments can address inequalities through the development and integration of policies, programs, partnerships, services and infrastructure to redistribute care work.
Care is the work that makes all other work possible. It encompasses all the activities necessary to meet the physical and psychological needs of individuals and communities across all ages, genders and abilities. It includes preparing food, childcare, domestic chores, emotional support, healthcare, education, care for people with disabilities and older persons, as well as self-care.
Care work enables our societies, economies, and households to function. This key social good can be unpaid when tasks are performed without financial compensation, primarily within households but also for extended family members, friends, or community members. Care work can also be paid when tasks are performed for financial compensation, commonly in sectors such as education, health, and social work, as well as in private households and through informal economies.
Societies, economies and cities cannot exist without care
This invisible labour commonly falls on specific social groups, such as women and people from migrant backgrounds. As such, neglecting care in policy perpetuates inequalities.
Women all over the world are time-poor
While care work alone represents 9% of global GDP, care responsibilities tend to remain unrecognised and unregulated in policy, and either under- or unpaid as well as commonly falling within the informal economy. On average, women dedicate at least 3 times more hours to unpaid care than men, spending approximately 4 hours a day on these tasks.
This extra labour that women perform has been dubbed as ‘the double shift’. The first shift of paid, formal work is usually followed by a ‘second shift’ of unpaid work when women go home and undertake the bulk of the household work and childcare responsibilities. As a result, when paid and unpaid work are accounted for, women work more hours a day than men.
Chart: Time spent daily on unpaid care work, paid work and total work, by sex, region and income group, latest available year
The International Labour Organisation estimates that 76% of all care work is carried out by women. The unequal distribution of care and domestic responsibilities have significant implications for women’s possibilities to actively participate in political and social life, for education and leisure, as well as the type and quality of employment opportunities available to them. Women all over the world lack time - in other words, they are ‘time poor’, or experience ‘time poverty’.
Investing in care is an economic imperative. Unpaidcare representsan estimated $US11 trillion of the global economy annually. Around the world, 606 million working age women are unable to undertake paid work because of full-time unpaid care responsibilities, in comparison to 41 million men outside the paid labour force for the same reason. Recognizing care work’s essential value, reducing and redistributing care, and investing in the care economy could create 269 million jobs, foster decent work and increased wellbeing for women and men.
Countries, like Pakistan and Japan, could gain 3-4% additional GDP by fully tapping into and supporting women's potential. Thus, the cost of not implementing care-related policies is high, leading to persistent inequalities, economic inefficiencies, and compromised quality of life for city dwellers.
Migrant women shoulder a double burden of invisibility
This is even more so the case for women of colour, and women from migrant backgrounds. Formal and informal care work - from healthcare to care for older persons or domestic work - is commonly undertaken by migrant populations, with 73% of migrant domestic workers being women. In many regions, women's migration is directly tied to the demand for care services, which remain underfunded and under-regulated by the public sector.
Lack of formalisation creates significant gaps that migrant women step in to fill, often under precarious conditions. Migrant women in the care economy can experience difficult working environments characterised by shifting schedules, physically demanding tasks, and job insecurity, with little opportunity for career advancement.
For migrant caregivers, these challenges are further compounded by their precarious status. Legal protections and labour rights can be inadequate, leaving them outside the scope of many public benefits and labour laws. In addition to this structural inequality, migrant caregivers frequently encounter discrimination, prejudices and language barriers, limiting their ability to navigate the legal system, access social services, or even seek basic support. As a result, migrant caregivers shoulder a double burden of invisibility in both their work and in the societies they contribute to.
Care as a growing international agenda
Care is a global issue. International treaties and frameworks compel States to address the issue of unpaid care work, such as Sustainable Development Goal 5.4 which calls all actors to “Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family”, and SDG Indicator 5.4.1 which measures the “Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location”. Further key milestones in recognising and affirming the importance of care as a social good:
1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
1979: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
1995: Beijing Platform for Action
2003: International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
2006: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
2015: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
2021: Generation Equality Forum and launch of the Global Alliance for Care
2023: UN Resolution to adopt 29 October as the International Day of Care and Support
2024: ILO Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy
Developing programs and policies that meet the care needs of all people is an essential step towards safeguarding the human rights of all people - from basic rights to health to decent work to equality and many more.
Public investment in care systems has the potential to transform cities
Strengthening local care systems not only enhances the well-being of all residents, but it helps alleviate the disproportionate responsibility undertaken by women and historically marginalised populations such as migrant workers. By recognizing care work as essential, local, regional and metropolitan governments can take meaningful steps toward more inclusive, just, and equitable cities where every person is supported and valued.
This toolkit offers practical guidance on how to create cities that care for everyone. Public investment in care systems has a transformative impact on individuals, families, and communities, and on addressing systemic inequalities.