Gender Alert on COVID-19 in Afghanistan | Issue IV: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women’s Burden of Care and Unpaid Domestic Labor

This alert focuses on the implications of COVID-19 on the already high burden of care and unpaid domestic labor responsibilities that women experience in Afghanistan. It also addresses the ways in which these challenges represent an expression of existing inequalities and lack of realization of women’s human rights; and outlines how the impact of lockdown measures on the hard won progress for women in formal employment, and the vulnerabilities and lack of social safety nets for women in informal and unmonetized sectors of the economy may increase women’s economic insecurity and domestic or care burden across all women’s lives.

The alert concludes with a set of preliminary recommendations for consideration by national and international stakeholders to foster the protection and promotion of women’s human rights as they relate to the burden of care and unpaid domestic work.