Dr Tsega Tefera’s address at the policy dialogue on accelerating care economy reforms in South Africa: evidence-driven policy, financing and practice, held on 22 May 2026
Programme Director, Honourable Minister, distinguished representatives of UN Women and other international organisations, government departments, civil society organisations, and academic institutions, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for the opportunity to address what I consider one of the most critical challenges facing South Africa’s economic transformation today.
Over the past week of deliberations, I hope that a fundamental understanding has crystallised: sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved without adequately recognising, redistributing, and rewarding care work. Care labour sustains people, households, communities, and ultimately the entire labour force and systems upon which the economy depends. Yet current economic frameworks continue to treat care as a private responsibility rather than as a public investment priority that requires systematic intervention.
Today, I want to advance a central argument: we must adopt a macroeconomic approach that puts care at the heart of development planning. This means positioning care infrastructure as economic infrastructure.
When we think about infrastructure investment, we typically focus on physical capital: roads, ports, energy systems, and telecommunications networks. These are, of course, essential. But extensive evidence demonstrates that care systems or ‘soft’ infrastructure, childcare, healthcare, education, and social protection, are equally critical enabling infrastructure for economic activity. Without adequate provision of these systems, labour supply is constrained, productivity is diminished, and prospects for sustainable growth are undermined.
Meanwhile, recent labour market data points to growing pressures within the broader social and care economy. The Quarterly Labour Force Statistics show that unemployment under the expanded definition rose from 42.1% in the last quarter of 2025 to 43.7% in the first quarter of 2026. From a care economy perspective, what is particularly concerning is that nearly 60% of job losses occurred within the community and social service sectors.
This represents a serious erosion of essential workforce capacity across critical social infrastructure, including public hospitals, primary healthcare clinics, educational institutions, and Early Childhood Development facilities. These dynamics carry multiple and serious implications, including substantial job losses in sectors where women are highly concentrated, as well as long-term consequences for human capital development, social cohesion, and broader societal well-being and resilience.
As outlined in South Africa’s National Development Plan, the country has adopted a transformative vision to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality through expanded employment, strengthened social protection, and improved access to quality public services. Central to this vision is the strengthening of the social wage through investments in education, healthcare, basic services, subsidised public transport, and broader social infrastructure. Realising these objectives requires a renewed macroeconomic approach that centres a caring spirit, one that recognises care not as a peripheral social concern, but as foundational to economic and social development.
This is not simply a social policy add-on; it is a macroeconomic imperative. And this imperative is grounded in hard evidence. A 2024 study by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies indicates that increasing investment in care economy services, particularly in childcare, education, and health, by 1 percentage point each year for five years could generate GDP growth of approximately 6.9% and increase non-agricultural employment by 8.8%, with disproportionately positive effects on women’s labour force participation. Similarly, a 2022 study by Harambee found that comprehensive Early Childhood Development coverage alone could generate approximately 450,000 direct jobs.
This is precisely the kind of macroeconomic thinking that is needed: one that recognises care as a driver of growth, employment, and equality, rather than a cost to be contained.
South Africa has already taken important steps in building a care economy policy framework. Through its G20 Presidency, it successfully positioned care as essential economic infrastructure rather than peripheral social policy, helping to reshape global discourse on care and development. In addition, domestic initiatives in gender-responsive budgeting and care-sensitive policy integration have created a clear mandate for the country and set important benchmarks for the continent.
However, the task before us now is to translate this emerging vision into a coherent macroeconomic strategy and into concrete implementation.
Over the past week of training, we have engaged deeply with the concepts, data, gaps, and policy options. The issue is no longer simply whether we value care. The real question is whether we are prepared to institutionalise care at the centre of economic policymaking and development planning. This means turning analysis into action by integrating care into budgeting and expenditure frameworks, strengthening the collection and use of data, such as time-use surveys, to guide prioritisation, costing, and macroeconomic modelling. It also requires stronger coordination across key departments so that care is embedded across planning, employment, and growth strategies
This is not only a technocratic task; it is a broader social and economic project. Investing in care is essential to realising dignity, equality, and social justice in the daily realities of households and communities across South Africa.
Let us therefore leave this room with a shared resolve: that when we next meet, we will not be revisiting the same gaps, but reporting on implementation, on new ECD centres opened, community health and social service posts filled, time-use data informing budgets and macroeconomic projections, and women who were previously excluded now fully participating in the economy.
I leave us with this ambition: that South Africa becomes a global leader in demonstrating that caring for people is not an obstacle to growth, but the very foundation of a just, inclusive, and dynamic economy.
Thank you!
