Addis ababa: Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, has called on African governments to move care work from the margins of economic policy and recognise it as essential infrastructure underpinning growth, employment and social development. Addressing the African Union Commission's inaugural Africa Care Forum, Letsike emphasized that Africa's economies cannot achieve inclusive growth while childcare, healthcare, disability support, domestic work, and other forms of paid and unpaid care remain undervalued and disproportionately carried by women.
According to South African Government News Agency, Letsike highlighted that care is not the soft edge of the economy but the infrastructure that makes the economy possible. Representing South Africa at the three-day Forum themed 'Placing Care at the Centre of Africa's Development Agenda', Letsike urged governments to incorporate care into national planning, budgets, and public investment. She argued that inadequate water, transport, childcare, healthcare, and social protection systems effectively shift the cost of care onto women's unpaid time.
Letsike called for care systems that protect the rights and dignity of both those receiving and providing care, including fair remuneration, safe working conditions, social protection, and participation in decisions affecting care work. She warned against treating care as the sole responsibility of women and families, advocating for shared responsibility among households, men, communities, employers, and the state.
Highlighting examples from Cabo Verde, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, Letsike suggested that Africa is not starting from scratch in developing a care economy. She pointed to extended households, community health workers, early childhood programs, home-based carers, domestic workers, disability organizations, and cooperatives that have sustained communities. Additionally, she mentioned that South Africa can build on existing social protection and community health services.
Letsike stressed the importance of measuring the economic contribution of care through data to ensure it is reflected in policy and budgets. She warned against reducing care solely to its monetary value, emphasizing the need to make care economically visible without compromising dignity.
The Deputy Minister noted that the continent already has a policy and legal foundation for advancing the care economy, including the Maputo Protocol and the African Union's Agenda 2063. She called for costed care plans in medium-term budgets, supported by care-budget tagging and expenditure reviews. Public investment should prioritize essential services and infrastructure to reduce unpaid care work.
Letsike proposed an African Care Financing Compact to scale viable care initiatives while protecting affordability, quality, and decent work. She also advocated for common African standards that recognize care as a right, public good, and essential infrastructure, urging Member States to translate these principles into national frameworks.
Finally, she cautioned against anti-democratic agendas that threaten the progress made in advancing care. Efforts should protect women's autonomy, the rights of persons with disabilities, and the rights of LGBTI persons, while ensuring workers' rights and civil society participation.