The Feminist Economics of Care: Making the Financing Case for Africa

Event Summary

Across Africa, women and girls shoulder the vast majority of paid and unpaid care work, playing a critical role in sustaining households, economies and social wellbeing. Yet care remain systematically undervalued, underfunded, and excluded from macroeconomic planning and national financing priorities. As austerity measures, debt burdens and cuts to public services deepen the care crisis, the need for sustainable public investment in care has never been more urgent.

This webinar seeks to build an urgent and compelling financing agenda for care in Africa by bringing together feminist economists, policymakers, activists, and practitioners to examine the political economy of care financing, the consequences of austerity and underinvestment, and the pathways toward building robust, publicly financed care systems. The discussion will foreground feminist alternatives for mobilising resources for care, including progressive taxation, debt justice, gender-responsive budgeting, and strengthened public investment in social infrastructure and social protection.