From 13 to 15 June 2026, the Labour Research Service, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung South Africa, and the IEJ convened the second Care Convergence.

The gathering brought together 60 women working as food handlers, community health workers, and early childhood development practitioners. It followed the inaugural convergence held in October 2025.

Participants reflected on their community interventions and their involvement in the first Care Workers’ Day, held on 7 February 2026. That mobilisation helped build solidarity among workers and reinforced the essential contribution care workers make to communities, the state, and the wider economy.

The convergence included an exhibition of workers’ stories, highlighting what motivates their work and the difficulties they encounter while navigating government administration, insecure employment, and the precarious conditions associated with the Expanded Public Works Programme.

Women constitute more than 80% of the workers employed through many of South Africa’s public care programmes. Despite the essential nature of this work, these sectors continue to be characterised by low pay, insecure contracts, and inadequate employment protections.

The convergence demonstrated that food handlers, community health workers, and early childhood educators should not be understood as three unrelated groups facing similar difficulties. They are part of a single, predominantly female care economy on which the state and communities depend.

However, each sector is administered by a different government department, funded through different mechanisms, and governed by different training, registration, and remuneration systems. This fragmentation places significant administrative and financial burdens on workers and compromises the care received by children, older people, people who are ill, and other community members.

A food handler classified as a volunteer, a community health worker employed without pension or provident-fund benefits, and an early childhood development practitioner struggling to register a centre are not separate policy failures. They are symptoms of a system that does not recognise care as essential public infrastructure or care work as skilled employment deserving decent wages and conditions.

The convergence gave the IEJ’s Care Economies team deeper insight into the lived experiences behind this frequently invisibilised work and the fragmented institutions care workers must navigate.