Female care workers provide childcare services in Amman, Jordan

Care economy in the Arab Region

© ILO/Jared J. Kohler
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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 patterns 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.

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

Highlighted publications

Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work

Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work

Making decent work a reality for domestic workers in the Middle East: Progress and prospects ten years after the adoption of the Domestic...

Making decent work a reality for domestic workers in the Middle East: Progress and prospects ten years after the adoption of the Domestic...

Partners and projects

Women’s empowerment in the context of the care economy (WE Care) - Supporting women-led care cooperatives to change perceptions and...
Two Palestanian boys play football in streets of Amman, Jordan

Women’s empowerment in the context of the care economy (WE Care) - Supporting women-led care cooperatives to change perceptions and...

ILO and SADAQA Investing in Childcare in Jordan
A group of participants at a meeting in Jordan

ILO and SADAQA Investing in Childcare in Jordan

Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territory
a woman working with an aluminium frame

Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territory

The FAIRWAY Programme
Two workers carrying crates of vegatables as they walk on a path running through agricultural field, in Jordan

The FAIRWAY Programme

News

Investing in care policies can create millions of jobs in MENA, new ILO report finds
A father holds his child as other children leave a daycare in Amman, Jordan

Care economy

Investing in care policies can create millions of jobs in MENA, new ILO report finds

From global care crisis to quality care at home: The case for including domestic workers in care policies and ensuring their rights at work
A Nepalese woman in traditional dress smiling in a house, in Qatar

ILO Policy Brief

From global care crisis to quality care at home: The case for including domestic workers in care policies and ensuring their rights at work

The role of parliamentarians in accelerating women’s economic empowerment under SDG 5 in the Arab region - Focus on care policies
women in a farm

The role of parliamentarians in accelerating women’s economic empowerment under SDG 5 in the Arab region - Focus on care policies