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Project

Accelerating care entrepreneurship: a pathway for a more gender-inclusive economy in Asia
 

China
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Thailand
Viet Nam
Project ID
109845
Total Funding
CAD 500,000.00
IDRC Officer
Carolina Robino
Project Status
Active
Duration
18 months

Programs and partnerships

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Luis Marquez
United Kingdom

Summary

In Southeast Asia, women do up to 3.5 hours more unpaid work than men each day. More broadly, in the most extreme cases in the Asia-Pacific region, girls and women spend up to 11 times as much time as men on unpaid and household work.Read more

In Southeast Asia, women do up to 3.5 hours more unpaid work than men each day. More broadly, in the most extreme cases in the Asia-Pacific region, girls and women spend up to 11 times as much time as men on unpaid and household work. While unpaid care work is critical for the functioning of households, communities and the economies of Asia, public and private sector scalable solutions that value care work, and can reduce and redistribute it, are poorly understood, under-invested and undervalued.

As part of the Transforming the Care Economy through Impact Investing initiative, a collaboration between IDRC and the Soros Economic Development Fund, this project aims to strengthen the ability of the entrepreneurship and private-sector ecosystem in Asia to support care entrepreneurship through evidence-based programming, policies, investment and innovative solutions.

The research will leverage insights and lessons learned gathered from the ongoing UN Women Care Accelerator and make recommendations based on the needs and expansion opportunities of participating care enterprises. The project will utilize an applied-research approach that engages care entrepreneurship ecosystem players (including investors, caregivers, customers and accelerators) to advance an understanding of what is needed and provide actionable recommendations to support care enterprises, particularly those leveraging digital platforms, to grow and thrive as sustainable and gender-inclusive businesses.