Background Paper: Centring Care in Africa’s Fiscal and Development Agenda

The paper examines the 'care crisis' in Africa, where unpaid care work—primarily performed by women—is economically invisible and underfunded due to debt burdens and austerity. It proposes a shift toward 'feminist fiscal justice' by adopting progressive taxation, wealth taxes, and integrated care systems, drawing on successful models from Uruguay, Colombia, and Costa Rica.

• African countries face a severe care crisis where unpaid care work is systematically invisible in fiscal planning, despite its estimated value exceeding 40 percent of GDP in some nations.
• Debt servicing significantly crowds out social investment in Africa; between 2021 and 2023, the continent spent more per capita on interest payments ($70) than on education ($63) or public health ($44).
• The paper identifies 'gendered austerity' as a mechanism where cuts to public services force women to act as 'shock absorbers' by increasing their unpaid labour to fill gaps in healthcare and education.
• Latin American models demonstrate that comprehensive care systems can be built within moderate fiscal regimes; for example, Uruguay's National Integrated Care System (SNIC) costs approximately 0.5% of GDP but increases women's labour force participation by 8.2 percentage points.
• Progressive taxation has proven effective for care financing in Latin America, such as Argentina's one-off wealth tax on assets exceeding ARS 200 mn, which generated approximately ARS 300 billion for pandemic-related care and social development.
• African nations are adopting progressive care policies, such as Kenya's 2024 National Care Policy and Cabo Verde's 2017 National Plan for Social Care, but these are often undermined by IMF-mandated fiscal consolidation and debt sustainability targets.
• South Africa utilizes innovative but fragmented financing for care, including the Early Childhood Education Outcomes Fund (2024) and a health-focused Social Impact Bond launched in 2018.
• The paper recommends several progressive revenue tools for Africa, including minimum corporate tax rates of 20% to 40%, digital services taxes, and wealth taxes on assets exceeding $1 million.
• To ensure sustainability, the document proposes 'care-protected budget categories' and 'debt-for-care swap' mechanisms to redirect debt service payments toward care infrastructure.

APA

Anumo, F. (2025). Background Paper: Centring Care in Africa’s Fiscal and Development Agenda. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IEJ-Centring-Care-in-Africa-BackgroundPaper-2025.pdf

Chicago

Anumo, Felogene. Background Paper: Centring Care in Africa’s Fiscal and Development Agenda. Institute for Economic Justice, 2025. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IEJ-Centring-Care-in-Africa-BackgroundPaper-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anumo |first1=Felogene |title=Background Paper: Centring Care in Africa’s Fiscal and Development Agenda |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=December 2025 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IEJ-Centring-Care-in-Africa-BackgroundPaper-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anumo2025background, author = {Anumo, Felogene}, title = {{Background Paper: Centring Care in Africa’s Fiscal and Development Agenda}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IEJ-Centring-Care-in-Africa-BackgroundPaper-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }