Care workers are an integral, though often invisible, part of society. They care for children and the elderly, provide health services to their communities, and do housework for little to no pay — even though such work is vital to keeping economies humming. So who cares for the care workers?
A new partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and the CARE Fund will direct $4.8 million over two years to help care workers in five countries — Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, and the Philippines — mobilize and advocate for stronger wages, safer working conditions, and gender equality. A memorandum of understanding announcing the initiative was signed on Thursday at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Summit in New York, and the goal is to bring on more donors in the future.
“This is just a start, and we really do have a lot of room to grow in this space of investing in care infrastructure worldwide,” Bama Athreya, USAID’s deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation, told Devex.
About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
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