Online Reporter
Muchaneta Chimuka
Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT, through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, in partnership with Women in Law for Southern Africa (WILSA) and other stakeholders, has begun a policy dialogue on feminist economic justice and unpaid care work.
The dialogue noted that Zimbabwe currently had no specific legislation governing unpaid care work.
Speaking during the workshop, Dr Matilda Singende, a Gender Programmes Officer, Community Development Officer and Deputy Director in the Ministry of Women Affairs, said Zimbabwe needed a policy framework covering both paid and unpaid care work.
She said such a framework would help recognise and address the contribution of care work to households and the wider economy.
“Unpaid care work encompasses domestic work, which includes cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and fetching water or firewood, and it also involves direct caregiving such as looking after children, elderly family members, and sick or disabled relatives without receiving a wage,” she said.
“There is a need for community involvement across the board, and I’m glad that there is male involvement in this workshop.
“Unpaid care work fuels gender-based violence, and women are overburdened by household chores, leading to underperformance at work.”
Matabeleland South – Senator Nonhlanhla Mlotshwa said there is a need for a legislative framework that governs unpaid care work.
“Communities have to support the bill amendments that explicitly address unpaid care work (not just general law) and build a community-based approach for policy implementation,” she said.
“To achieve this, there is a need for evidence and a data-driven approach as to how many people in Zimbabwe are affected and their gender.
“There is also a need for a budget-responsive plan that reflects care burdens, not beneficiary counts.”
Mrs Isheanesu Chirisa, the National Director of WILSA, said some unpaid care work is compounded by a lack of proper infrastructure, which results in most of the work being done manually.
“Infrastructure upgrading is key in easing the burden of unpaid care work, especially for women,” she said.
“To avoid walking long distances in search of water, boreholes can be constructed close to the communities or at household level; roads have to be constructed such that the burden of taking care of the sick is reduced, because we use roads when going to hospitals and clinics; electricity and other clean sources of energy are required at a low cost to avoid fetching firewood.”
Zimbabwe Women’s Resources Centre and Network executive director Mrs Thokozile Ruzvidzo said communities should not normalise unpaid care work in the name of culture and socialisation.
“Unpaid care work is a serious issue; hence it should be formalised and should be regarded as an economic and rights issue and not as a ‘women’s issue’,” she said.
“We should align our messaging with continental and global frameworks, African Union’s emerging common position on care and the Abuja Declaration and Vision 2030 commitments.”
Mrs Rumbidzai Makoni, the Project Coordinator of ActionAid International Act Community of Practice, said unpaid care work shouldn’t be treated as a charity but should match the international standards,
“The main agenda is to protect the most affected women who bear the heaviest and most invisible burdens,” she said.
“For example, women caring for persons with disabilities, children, the aged and the sick. We are also integrating the aspect of paid care work, the domestic workers and professional caregivers, as we work with the Domestic Workers union to push for decent wages, protection and working conditions.”
This is a global imbalance that disproportionately affects Women and girls, who perform about 75 percent of all unpaid care and domestic work worldwide.
The policy also seeks to prioritise gender response, social security and protection measures so that women have an opportunity to improve themselves and compete with men on an equal footing.
Kenya is one of the countries that has advanced by enacting the Unpaid Care and Domestic Work Act – a huge milestone.
Kenya endorsed the National Care Policy in December 2025 to formally recognise, reduce, and redistribute the heavy burden of unpaid care work.
Unpaid domestic and care work in Kenya is valued at approximately KSh 1.99 to 2.54 trillion, which accounts for roughly 23 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Women in Kenya spend an average of 4 to 5 hours daily on unpaid care tasks, compared to about 54 minutes to 1 hour for men.
This has been regarded as an imbalance that leads to “time poverty” for women and girls, restricting their ability to pursue formal employment, leadership roles, and education.
