2024 Asia-Pacific Care Forum

Transforming Care: Building Alliances, Empowering Women, Reshaping Economies

Care - for children, elderly, and the vulnerable is a right and shared responsibility and essential for families, societies, and economies to function and thrive. However, globally as well as in Asia-Pacific, women bear a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work compared to men. The disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities often borne by women is one of the main reasons women do not join the labour market. The lack of care services contributes to women taking up precarious work or dropping out of their jobs. Similarly, paid care jobs, which often employ women, many of whom are migrants, do not offer decent working conditions, with low wages and limited protections.

Organized by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, with the support of the Global Alliance for Care, and partners: Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Visa Foundation, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Ayat Care, the Forum brings together diverse stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific to learn, collaborate and take action on care to advance women’s economic empowerment and gender equality.

Set over three days, the 2024 Asia-Pacific Care Forum will build a shared understanding of care and its intersections with pressing issues faced by our region. The Forum will focus on, among other areas, the need for job creation, the nexus between climate change and care, practical solutions for financing and implementing care delivery models, and enhancing linkages with social protection. Core to this will be building alliances and partnerships for transforming the care economy.

Governments, civil society organizations, investors, private sector, care entrepreneurs and key development actors from the region are invited to attend.

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• Concept note and agenda