ENGAGING THE CARE ECONOMY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: DEBATES AND CONTESTATIONS

The document explores the 'care economy'—the system of paid and unpaid activities that sustain human life—tracing its roots from the 1970s Wages for Housework movement to modern policy frameworks like the 3R/5R models. It critiques neoliberal 'human capital' approaches that view care primarily as a tool for economic growth and highlights how care in the Global South differs from the Global North due to the prevalence of non-capitalist production and infrastructure gaps. The paper concludes that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the systemic fragility of care structures and the tokenistic nature of 'essential worker' labels, calling for a transformative justice approach to care.

• The 'crisis of care' refers to the increasing difficulty for individuals to maintain emotional well-being, physical health, and social relationships while performing the labour necessary for survival.
• The care economy is a complex system of social relations and activities—including childcare, elder care, education, and healthcare—that maintain the physical and emotional needs of humans, much of which is unpaid and invisibilised due to its association with women.
• The Wages for Housework movement of the 1970s sought to challenge the devaluation of domestic labour by arguing that unpaid work is essential for the reproduction of society and the functioning of capitalism.
• The 'Women in Development' (WID) approach attempted to make women's economic contributions visible through gender-disaggregated data and 'satellite accounts,' but it was critiqued for remaining rooted in neoclassical economics and failing to challenge the gendered structure of power.
• Diane Elson's 3R framework (Recognition, Reduction, and Redistribution) provided a milestone for distributing the costs and benefits of unpaid care, which was later expanded by UN Women into the 5Rs to include 'Reward' and 'Represent'.
• Neoliberal frameworks, such as those used by the World Bank, often frame care through 'human capital development' or 'social investment,' treating care as a means to increase women's labour market participation and economic growth rather than a right or a site of social justice.
• Care in the Global South differs from the Global North because it often includes participation in non-capitalist forms of production and is heavily impacted by gaps in physical infrastructure; for example, women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours annually collecting water.
• The Covid-19 pandemic's 'essential worker' discourse was often tokenistic, as it failed to include unpaid reproductive and informal work within the 'essential' boundary and did not improve the precarious conditions of those it did label as essential.

APA

Kasan, J. (2023). ENGAGING THE CARE ECONOMY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: DEBATES AND CONTESTATIONS. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-CareEconomy1-Oct2023.pdf

Chicago

Kasan, Juhi. ENGAGING THE CARE ECONOMY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: DEBATES AND CONTESTATIONS. Institute for Economic Justice, 2023. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-CareEconomy1-Oct2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kasan |first1=Juhi |title=ENGAGING THE CARE ECONOMY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: DEBATES AND CONTESTATIONS |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=October 2023 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-CareEconomy1-Oct2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kasan2023engaging, author = {Kasan, Juhi}, title = {{ENGAGING THE CARE ECONOMY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: DEBATES AND CONTESTATIONS}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2023}, month = oct, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-CareEconomy1-Oct2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }