Dr Basani Baloyi’s keynote address to the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group Third Technical Meeting
Distinguished delegates, esteemed colleagues, and champions of change,
Picture this – it’s 3 AM, and Maria, a nurse in São Paulo, finishes her shift caring for patients. She drives home, not to rest, but to care for her elderly mother and prepare breakfast for her children before they wake. Across the world in Johannesburg, Nomsa juggles her job as a teacher with caring for her disabled brother and managing her household. In Chicago, Sarah has reduced her hours as an engineer to part-time after her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, coordinating his care while managing her own family’s needs, her lost career advancement invisible to economic measures.
These women represent hundreds of millions across our G20 nations. Their stories embody what philosopher Silvia Federici so powerfully captured: “what they call love, we call unpaid work.” Today, we gather not just to acknowledge this reality, but to transform it through the unprecedented opportunity that G20 leadership presents.
We stand at a pivotal moment. The care economy is no longer a peripheral concern; it is the foundation upon which all economic activity rests. And through the collaborative power of the G20, we have the tools, the evidence, and the momentum to make care count in ways that will reshape our economies and societies for generations to come.
The Hidden Economic Powerhouse
Let me share with you numbers that will fundamentally change how you think about economic policy. If we were to compensate unpaid care work at market rates, it would represent nine percent of global gross domestic product, equivalent to eleven trillion dollars annually. To put this in perspective, that’s larger than the entire GDP of China, the world’s second-largest economy.
In Brazil alone, women subsidise the economy by at least 10.8 trillion dollars per year through their dedication to caregiving work. This isn’t charity, this is economic production that enables every other sector to function. When women spend 9.6 more hours per week than men on domestic chores and caring for people, when 92% of women aged 14 or older perform domestic and caregiving tasks, they are not just maintaining households; they are sustaining the entire economic system.
Yet here lies the great paradox of our time: the work that makes all other work possible remains invisible to our economic measures. Care work is excluded from GDP calculations, undervalued in policy discussions, and absent from most economic planning. We measure the production of cars and computers, but not the production of healthy, educated, capable human beings who drive those cars and operate those computers.
This invisibility has profound consequences. It reinforces traditional gender roles, limits women’s economic opportunities, and perpetuates systemic inequality. It means that when we talk about economic growth, we’re only seeing half the picture. We’re building economies on a foundation we refuse to acknowledge, let alone strengthen.
The G20 Momentum: From Brazil to South Africa
But here’s where hope enters our story. In 2024, Brazil took an unprecedented step that will be remembered as a turning point in global economic policy. The Brazilian Federal Government sent to Congress a bill to establish the National Caregiving Policy, the first comprehensive national strategy of its kind. This wasn’t the work of a single ministry or department. It was built through collaboration among teams from twenty ministries, representatives from states and municipalities, and academic institutions. It represents a whole-of-government approach to recognising care as a public good and economic priority.
Brazil’s leadership elevated care work to a central position in G20 discussions, hosting international seminars and advancing consensual declarations that acknowledge care as fundamental to economic development. They demonstrated that when countries commit to evidence-based policy development, transformation becomes possible.
Now, South Africa’s G20 presidency builds on this foundation with three key priorities that will shape the future of care economies globally. First, developing policy perspectives on both paid and unpaid care work and household responsibilities. Second, promoting financial inclusion for women. And third, addressing gender-based violence and femicide. These priorities recognise that care economy transformation requires addressing the full spectrum of challenges that women face.
What makes this moment extraordinary is not just the ambition, but the methodology. South Africa is facilitating policy discourse and collaboration based on evidence-based research across G20 countries. They’re creating platforms for sharing cross-country experiences, learning from both successes and challenges, and developing context-sensitive recommendations that respect the diversity of G20 nations while advancing common goals.
The Transformation Opportunity
The evidence is clear: investing in care economies is not just morally imperative, it’s economically transformative. According to the World Economic Forum, a USD 1.3 trillion investment in social jobs, particularly in the care economy, would generate a 3.1 trillion dollar return in GDP and create more than ten million jobs in the United States alone. This isn’t theoretical; this is a proven investment strategy with measurable returns.
The International Labour Organisation projects that investing in childcare and long-term care could generate 203 million jobs globally by 2035. This includes 56 million direct jobs in childcare, 100 million direct jobs in long-term care and support, and an additional 47 million indirect jobs in non-care sectors. These aren’t just numbers; they represent millions of families lifted out of poverty, millions of women able to participate fully in economic life, and millions of children and elderly people receiving the care they need and deserve.
The demographic reality makes this investment not just beneficial, but essential. By 2030, more than 2.3 billion adults will need care services, along with 100 million children. By 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s elderly population will live in low- and middle-income countries, many of which currently lack the care infrastructure to meet these growing needs. We can either prepare for this demographic transition through strategic investment, or we can allow it to become a crisis that overwhelms families and undermines economic stability.
The ILO’s 5R framework provides a roadmap for this transformation: Recognise care work in policy and planning; reduce the burden through infrastructure and technology; redistribute care responsibilities more equitably between women and men, and between families and the state; represent care workers in decision-making processes; and reward care work through decent wages and social protection. This framework has been tested and refined through international collaboration, and it offers G20 countries a proven pathway to care economy transformation.
A Vision of Hope: What Success Looks Like
Imagine a world where Maria, the nurse from São Paulo, has access to quality eldercare services for her mother and affordable childcare for her children, allowing her to focus on her career while knowing her family is well cared for. Picture Nomsa in Johannesburg with access to community support services for her brother and recognition of her care work through social protection systems. Envision Sarah in Chicago able to return to full-time engineering because comprehensive eldercare support and respite services help manage her father’s care needs.
This isn’t utopian thinking; this is achievable policy implementation. When countries invest in care infrastructure, the ripple effects are profound. Women’s labour force participation increases, reducing the gender pay gap and boosting household incomes. Children receive better early childhood education and development, improving their life outcomes and future economic productivity. Elderly people age with dignity and support, reducing healthcare costs and family stress. Care workers receive decent wages and working conditions, creating a professional pathway that attracts skilled workers to this essential sector.
The evidence from countries that have made these investments is compelling. Canada’s ten-dollar-per-day childcare program has already created over 40,000 net new jobs in the early learning and childcare sector while enabling thousands of women to enter or expand their participation in the workforce. Nordic countries’ comprehensive care systems have achieved some of the world’s highest levels of gender equality and economic competitiveness. These examples prove that care economy transformation is not just possible, it’s a pathway to more prosperous, equitable, and resilient societies.
The G20 represents an unprecedented opportunity to scale these successes globally. With our collective economic power, our diverse experiences, and our shared commitment to sustainable development, we can create a new paradigm where care is valued, supported, and integrated into economic planning. We can move from a model where care is invisible and undervalued to one where it is recognised as the foundation of human and economic development.
The Time Is Now
Distinguished colleagues, we stand at a crossroads. We can continue with economic models that ignore the eleven trillion dollars of unpaid care work that sustains our societies, or we can embrace a new paradigm that recognises, values, and invests in care as the foundation of inclusive economic growth.
The G20 has the power, the platform, and the responsibility to lead this transformation. We have the evidence from Brazil’s groundbreaking National Caregiving Policy. We have the framework from South Africa’s comprehensive approach to women’s empowerment. We have the data showing that care economy investment generates measurable returns in GDP growth, job creation, and social stability.
What we need now is the collective will to act. The 708 million women worldwide who are outside the labour force due to care responsibilities are counting on us. The 2.3 billion adults who will need care services by 2030 are counting on us. The future generations who will inherit the economic and social systems we build today are counting on us.
The care economy is not a women’s issue; it’s an economic imperative. It’s not a burden to be managed, it’s an opportunity to be seized. It’s not a cost to be minimised, it’s an investment that will transform our societies.
Through the G20 process, we have the opportunity to make care count. Your assignment is to build consensus around the G20 Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group. Let us seize this moment, embrace this vision, and build economies that work for everyone. The time for transformation is now, and the power to achieve it is in our hands. My organisation, the Institute for Economic Justice, a resource partner that has worked closely with South Africa’s Department of Women, Youth, and People Living with Disabilities, stands ready to support the reimagining and implementation of the goal of making care count.