Increasing Investments in Care in the IDA20 Replenishment

Overview

IDA20 offers an important opportunity to tackle the rising gender inequality tied to the unequal distribution of unpaid care work between women, girls, and men. IDA is a crucial source of concessional finance that lower-income countries depend on and is one of the biggest providers of core support for human development and public services.

Against a backdrop of fiscal consolidation and contraction in the wake of COVID-19, it is imperative for IDA20 to do its part in tackling the gendered impacts of COVID-19. Care—which has previously been neglected in IDA strategies—must be integrated into the IDA20 policy commitments. Investments in a package of care of measures (e.g., investments in care-supporting physical infrastructure, care services, care-supporting social protection, gender-responsive budgeting, and data collection) are critical to reduce the heavy, unequal, and gendered responsibility of unpaid and underpaid care work.