Transforming Care Systems in Pakistan: A Roadmap for Economic Growth and Social Equity

Transforming Care Systems in Pakistan: A Roadmap for Economic Growth and Social Equity makes the case for recognizing care as central to Pakistan’s inclusive growth, gender equality and social resilience. The brief highlights how unpaid and paid care work—such as childcare, eldercare, disability support, domestic work and community care—remains undervalued and disproportionately carried by women and girls, limiting their economic participation and reinforcing gender inequality.

Drawing on the National Dialogue on Transforming Care Systems and global frameworks including the ILO 5R Framework, the brief argues that investing in care is not only a social imperative but a high-return economic strategy. It can create decent jobs, strengthen human capital, improve social protection and reduce women’s unpaid care burden.

The brief identifies key gaps in Pakistan’s care ecosystem, including outdated time-use data, limited care infrastructure, weak legal protections for care workers, insufficient public financing and persistent social norms that position care as women’s responsibility. It calls for a coordinated national response: recognizing care as a strategic economic sector; developing a national care policy and roadmap; expanding childcare, eldercare and disability care services; formalizing and protecting care work; improving care-related data; mobilizing public and private financing; and promoting shared responsibility across households, workplaces and communities.

By making care visible, valued and shared, Pakistan can unlock women’s economic potential and build a more equitable, productive and resilient society.