Market systems programmes are increasingly targeting women’s economic empowerment. However, approaches to support women to participate in paid work often assume that women’s time is elastic. They fail to consider roles and responsibilities in the household and the community, and this can undermine both development outcomes and market activities.
This policy briefing highlights the interactions between market systems programmes and unpaid care responsibilities, and the consequences for both programmes and women of not addressing unpaid care work related constraints. It outlines different pathways for programmes to facilitate changes to address problematic aspects of unpaid care work.
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