Asia-Pacific Care Learning Week ends with bold commitments to transform care systems

Joint press release
For immediate release

Bangkok/Kathmandu  – The 2025 Asia-Pacific Care Learning Week forum concluded with a clear message: the case for transforming care systems must be advanced with urgency, backed by bold investments and policy actions across the region. Organized by UN Women and UNICEF, the event was held in Kathmandu from 2 to 5 September and brought together more than 150 participants from over 20 countries, including representatives of governments, development partners, civil society, women’s organizations, employers, unions, research institutions and businesses.

Care systems, encompassing childcare, eldercare, support for persons with disabilities, and policies that enable families to access quality, affordable care, are the backbone of resilient, inclusive societies. Yet across Asia and the Pacific, this essential work falls largely to women and girls, limiting their economic opportunities and reinforcing gender inequalities.

The four-day programme featured two days of technical training followed by the 2025 Asia-Pacific Care Forum. Its focus was practical: building skills, sharing evidence and designing strategies to strengthen inclusive, sustainable and gender-responsive care systems across the region.

One of the key highlights of the forum was the Government of Nepal’s announcement that it will become the first country in South Asia to join the Global Alliance for Care. This strong signal of political will was supported by pledges from four ministries and one government commission to work together to strengthen the country’s care systems.

The forum also showcased the power of youth-led innovation. In partnership with UN Women’s AI School, youth leaders from Nepal introduced TransformCare GPT, under the Transform Care Investment Initiative (TCII), an AI tool that supports practitioners and policymakers in creating evidence-based, gender-responsive and resilient care systems.

“The 2025 TransformCare Learning Week was a powerful exchange of knowledge, the creation of new partnerships and the co-creation of innovative solutions,” said Katja Freiwald, Technical Advisor at the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. “We stand at a critical juncture where inspiration must fuel action. Investing in transformative care systems is essential to unlocking women’s full economic potential. The time to act is now. Let us turn momentum into measurable impact for women, families and economies across our region.” 

“Nepal is trailblazing the way in the Asia-Pacific region by recognizing that care is essential for people and progress,” said Patricia Fernandez-Pacheco, Country Representative for UN Women Nepal. “By integrating care as a priority in the development plan, Nepal is showing why investing in care is fundamental to accelerating decent jobs, expanding social protection and building a more inclusive future,” she added.

“Investing in care systems is investing in every child’s right to grow, learn and thrive,” said Julianna Lindsey, UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for South Asia. “But too many children are still being left behind, with girls carrying the weight of unpaid care and children with disabilities struggling without the support they deserve. Governments must act now to build inclusive, family-friendly care systems that give every child the love, dignity and opportunities they need to reach their full potential.”

“Care keeps our communities alive—raising children, supporting people with disabilities and nurturing life,” said Myo-Zin Nyunt, Deputy Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific at UNICEF. “Yet too often this essential work, carried out mostly by women and girls, goes unseen. We must build care systems that value and uphold the dignity of both givers and receivers.”

Sessions during the week addressed critical pathways for change, including:

• Applying a gender-transformative and disability-inclusive lens to all care policies;
• Using data and evidence to make the economic case for investing in care;
• Developing innovative financing models and public–private partnerships;
• Devising practical strategies for creating ‘Caring Cities’ and gender-inclusive public spaces;
• Building family-friendly workplaces and strengthening social protection systems;
• Addressing the intersections of climate change and care responsibilities; and
• Ensuring decent work and fair wages for the paid care workforce.

The week culminated in a strengthened resolve to implement the TransformCare Investment Initiative Asia-Pacific (TCII–AP), which calls for catalytic investments to benefit 100 million women and girls, create 125 million new care sector jobs and reduce women’s unpaid care work by two billion hours by 2035.

The Learning Week’s objectives are firmly rooted in the global vision for gender equality outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

The success of the Asia-Pacific Care Learning Week, now in its third year, was made possible through broad collaboration. UN Women acknowledges its core organizing partners, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific and UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, and its technical and financial partners: the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of the Republic of Korea, the Governments of Sweden and Norway, supported by the European Union, the United Nations joint programme Empowered Women, Prosperous Nepal (EWPN), UN ESCAP, Oxfam and the Global Alliance for Care.