United for care-sensitive approaches to rights and empowerment

The project "United for care-sensitive approaches to rights and empowerment (U-CARE)" seeks to reduce the heavy unequal and unfair burden of unpaid and paid care work borne by women and girls in northern Ghana. The projet must work with key stakeholders such as the Ghana statistical service (GSS) national policy makers and district assemblies to to develop a picture of paid and unpaid caregiving in northern Ghana. They must also put in place a policy framework and policies that recognize the existence of paid and unpaid caregiving and reduce and better distribute the burden associated with it in 10 northern districts. The Canadian executing agency Alinea International must deliver the project in collaboration with 2 key local partners: the Social enterprise development foundation Ghana and the Network for women’s rights in Ghana. Project activities include: (1) facilitating government policy and service provision through the utilization of time use data; (2) supporting grassroots actions to redistribute care at the household and community levels through the use of Gender model families; (3) supporting women’s rights organizations from regional to district level to undertake a national advocacy Strategy on paid and unpaid caregiving; and (4) supporting local entrepreneurs and women-led businesses to develop and market new goods and services to reduce the burden of paid and unpaid care borne by women and girls.

The expected results for this project include: (1) Focusing on evidence policy and programming to create an enabling environment for greater equality in the burden of unpaid and paid care work and; (2) creating social change at the grassroots level supported by national and local advocacy.