Care economy in the Arab Region

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The future of care economy in the Arab States

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The future of care economy in the Arab States

The recognition of importance of the care economy is growing in the Arab region where ensuring availability of and access to quality care for elderly, children and people with disabilities can be challenging due to various factors such as demographic shifts, economic and political instabilities, and changing patters of family structure. The Arab region also relies heavily on international migrant domestic workers for the provision of care especially at home and ensuring decent work for migrant domestic workers has been a challenge. Working with its constituents, UN agencies and development partners, the ILO in Arab region has initiated important work in the care economy.

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A minimum maternity leave period of 14 weeks

was mandated by the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) (1) and the related Recommendation (No. 191) (2), yet few countries in the region meet this threshold.

≈6M jobs by 2035 will be generated by investing in

childcare & long-term care services in 12 MENA countries, according to ILO. 5.1M are direct jobs in childcare, ≈ 5.3M are direct jobs in long-term care, 2.6M are indirect jobs in non-care sectors (3).

Every dollar spent on a care package

that extends adequately paid childcare-related leave as well as early childhood care and education services would result in around 3 dollars of GDP increase.

6.6 million domestic workers in the Arab States

accounting for 12.3% of total employment, who are mostly migrant workers, face significant decent work deficits, including poor remuneration, lack of social protection & restrictions on forming unions

Sources

(1) The ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183)

(2) Recommendation (No. 191)

(3) Care at Work: Investing in Care Leave and Services for a More Gender Equal World of Work