Unpaid caregiving in Sierra Leone significantly hampers gender equity, particularly in Freetown, where women and girls bear a disproportionate burden within households. Due to the time-intensive nature of caregiving responsibilities, women work 1.6 times more than men, encompassing both paid and unpaid work. This time poverty restricts their opportunities for education, well-being, and economic advancement, while also leaving them vulnerable to sexual violence.

The care economy is a critical, yet often underfunded and undervalued, sector that encompasses paid and unpaid care work. It includes activities related to caregiving for children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, as well as domestic work.

Canada’s International Development Research Centre, in partnership with the Soros Economic Development Fund at the Open Society Foundations, has provided a grant to Kore Global to lead a research consortium to map out, profile and systematically review care economy business models in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.