Economics of Care briefing papers
Discover more bilateral Indonesia-Australia trade and investment opportunities related to the care economy.
Economics of Care
Trade and Investment Opportunities in the Care Economy
Across Indonesia and Australia, aging populations and rising incomes are driving growth in both eldercare and childcare services and together with the favourable policy environment enabled by the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, is unlocking exciting new trade and investment opportunities in the Care Economy.
The “Economics of Care: Trade and Investment Opportunities in the Care Economy” webinar series by Katalis will explore from multiple angles these high potential business opportunities in childcare, aged care/long-term care and healthcare.
This engaging three-part series will feature prominent women and men from the business community and public sector as well as Care Economy experts from Indonesia and Australia who will share their first-hand experiences and market insights into how businesses can take advantage of one of the newest and untapped investment categories as well as answer your pressing questions.
Join the Economics of Care webinar series
Care economy consists of labour and services that support caregiving in all its forms. It represents a new vision of economics that recognises the importance of care work, empowerment and autonomy of women to the functioning of the economies, wellbeing of societies and life sustainability.
The care economy includes both unpaid and paid care work, carried out by people who are formally trained or not, for instance childcare and breastfeeding, care for the elderly, care for persons with disabilities, etc. It also includes value chains that rely on care workers, such as healthcare, domestic care, childcare, etc. as well as care-relevant infrastructures, services and technology, such as facilities and applications to mobilise and perform care services.
Investing in the care economy is big business, it is also critical to improving educational, employment and wellbeing outcomes.
In Indonesia, the ILO found that investing in universal childcare and long-term care services in Indonesia will generate almost 10.4 million jobs by 2035. This research also showed that investment in an universal and comprehensive care policy package could reduce the gender gap in employment rates by 5.5 percentage points, translating into an increase in women’s employment rate from 40% to 56.8% by 2035.
While the labour force participation gaps in Australia are less stark in comparison, uneven distribution of unpaid care work also negatively impacts women’s participation in the workforce and the quality of their employment; women’s participation rate is 68.9% and they are three times more represented in part-time employment roles than men.
Asian-Pacific women perform more than four times the unpaid care work conducted by men.
In Australia, women spend 64% of their time on unpaid care work compared to 36% for men.
Despite the massive potential economic and social returns and the fact that it cuts across several economic sectors relevant to IA-CEPA and has a strong digital and skills components, the care economy, as an investment category, is not well known to investors in Australia or Indonesia.
Bilateral trade in care economy goods and services is well below potential. Recent research by Value for Women finds that there are several factors which inhibit investor engagement in the care economy: 1) no clear definition of the care economy; 2) limited market data available; 3) social structures and norms limit market development; 4) gender finance gap for women-led businesses; and 5) perceived riskiness of the investment category. Several of these obstacles are also relevant explanations for the limited trade activity in care economy.
It's
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The care economy and care policies are integral part of a conducive business environment. They can be gender transformative, enabling women to have a better access to quality jobs, resources, capacities and entrepreneurship. This is the case from two perspectives.
First, the formal care economy sector is female-dominated and sectoral reforms will quantitatively benefit women.
Second, care policies make qualitative improvements, which in the first place benefit women, who can reduce the time and resources they allocate to unpaid care work and reallocate them to other activities such as establishing a business, entering the formal labour market or training to improve their skills.
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