Gender activists are calling for greater recognition and support for unpaid caregiving and domestic work, which remains predominantly the responsibility of women and girls.

Tasks such as child and elder care, cooking, cleaning, and fetching firewood and water are critical to the functioning of households and the economy, yet they are often overlooked in economic assessments and policy-making.

Rita Aciro, Executive Director of the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET), highlighted the immense value of unpaid caregiving.
“Unpaid caregiving is the backbone of society but is still overlooked and underappreciated,” she said. “Even a small amount of support for those working in this overlooked sector can unlock substantial potential and financial worth.”

Aciro emphasized the need to acknowledge the significant contributions of unpaid caregivers and to implement measures to alleviate their burdens. These measures include financial compensation, social security benefits, access to quality childcare and elderly care services, flexible work arrangements, and improved parental leave policies.

Angela Nakafeero, Commissioner for Gender at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, illustrated the harsh reality of unpaid caregiving with a poignant image: a mother tending to a pot on a charcoal stove, a heap of laundry waiting to be washed, and two young children confined to a basin for safety. “The topic of assisted care has been deliberated in cabinet,” Nakafeero said, quoting President Yoweri Museveni’s question, “Who is going to pay for this work?”

Nakafeero clarified that the advocacy is not just about monetary compensation from spouses.
“Paying would be good, but that is not all we are advocating. This issue is bigger,” she explained. “Spouses can create conditions at home to help each other reduce the burden. It begins with simple recognition and possible redistribution of work between men and women.”

Aciro pointed out that if the burden of unpaid care is left to one person, it robs them of time that could be used for economic and personal development activities, preventing them from reaching their full potential. “Statistics show that women constitute around 51 percent of the population. The majority are locked in unpaid care and domestic work, which is already a loss to the economy before we compute productive time lost,” she added.

Sarah Agwang, Director of Programs at UWONET, stressed the critical role of the government in alleviating the burden of unpaid care and domestic work.
“The government needs to implement support systems that bring essential services closer to the people,” she stated, highlighting the importance of social protection mechanisms such as childcare services and family leave policies.

Sarah Opendi, Chairperson of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association, underscored the transformative impact of support systems.
“The government is challenged to invest in areas that can help reduce the burden,” she noted. “More funds should be allocated to extending clean water to homes, making electricity cheaper, and establishing early childhood centres.”

Florence Asiimwe Akiiki, Woman MP for Masindi and Executive Director of the National Association of Women’s Organisations in Uganda suggested that investing in technology and better products can significantly reduce the burden of unpaid care work.
“Leveraging technology with creatively designed, purpose-specific labour-saving products is crucial,” she stated. “For instance, households can save time by using washing machines for laundry, and collecting water in tanks during rainy seasons can eliminate the need for long trips to fetch water.”

She added that new technologies could help challenge traditional gender norms. “If a man cannot prepare or light up a cooking stove, having electricity and a simple cooker means he can easily help by just switching it on,” she noted. She stressed that these solutions and technologies need to be made available and accessible to both rural and urban populations.

A survey by the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) indicated that women and girls in Uganda spend around twenty hours per week on unpaid care work—twice as much time as men and boys. This disproportionate burden limits their ability to participate in paid employment. The findings showed that, on average, women spent 32 hours weekly on unpaid care work and 21 hours weekly on unpaid production of products for home consumption, while men spent 20 and 10 hours per week respectively.

Globally, over 75 per cent of unpaid care work is done by women, and the economic value of all the unpaid care that women over 15 years old provide is an astounding $10.8 trillion. Activists argue that recognizing and supporting this work is crucial for achieving gender equality and economic growth.