Juhi Kasan, Project Lead: Care Economies
On 1 July 2025, I had the honour of moderating a session titled “Situating the Current Landscape of Care” as part of the official pre-event to the G20 Women’s Empowerment Working Group. The session brought together global experts to reflect on where we stand in the care economy, and what must happen to move beyond rhetoric toward transformation.
Opening the session, I reflected on the five years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that moment of crisis, the vital role of care was made starkly visible. Care workers, from health professionals and domestic workers to ECD practitioners and transport operators, were rightly recognised as essential. But five years on, we must ask ourselves: has this visibility translated into structural change?
The truth is, we remain in the midst of a global care crisis. Rising care needs, driven by demographic shifts, inequality, and chronic underinvestment in care, continue to outstrip the capacity of systems designed to deliver support. According to the ILO, women perform 16.4 billion hours of unpaid care work daily. That’s equivalent to two billion people working full time, without pay. An estimated 708 million women remain outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities. These figures speak to the staggering scale of the issue, and the cost of inaction.
This session invited us to take stock, and three esteemed speakers joined me to do just that.
Emanuela Pozzan, Senior Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Specialist at the ILO, reminded us that while policy frameworks on care have gained traction, implementation remains patchy, especially where fiscal constraints and weak enforcement persist. She called for better alignment between labour and social protection systems to support both paid and unpaid care work, and highlighted the critical role that platforms like the G20 must play in financing and coordinating national-level change.
Lerato Shai, labour economist and ECD advocate, underscored the centrality of early childhood development to the care economy. She reminded us that ECD is not just a social good, it’s an economic strategy, with direct links to employment creation, poverty reduction, and gender equity. But without targeted public investment, the sector will remain under-recognised and under-resourced. She called on the G20 to place ECD firmly on its agenda as a pillar of human capital development.
María Noel Estrada (UNRISD) brought a powerful intersectional lens to the conversation, reminding us that care systems cannot be built in isolation from other structures, whether climate policy, labour regimes, or social protection. She called for care to be treated as a foundational pillar of economic justice, and for national planning to break out of its siloed logic and reflect the complexity of people’s lived realities.
Throughout the discussion, one thing was clear: symbolic recognition of care is no longer enough. The political moment demands that we build care systems that are publicly supported, equitably financed, and designed with the realities of women and all caregivers at the centre. It also demands that we reframe care not as a cost, but as a social and economic investment, one that underpins collective wellbeing and shared prosperity.
As the Care Economies Project at IEJ continues its work in South Africa and globally, this session affirmed the importance of intersectional, collaborative, and politically courageous approaches. The road ahead will require coordinated advocacy, sustained pressure, and grounded policy solutions, but I left the conversation with renewed clarity on what’s at stake and what’s possible.
Amaarah is a Junior Programme Officer in the Rethinking Economics for Africa project. She is currently studying towards her Masters in Applied Development Economics at Wits University. 
Dr James Musonda is the Senior Researcher on the Just Energy Transition at the IEJ. He is also the Principal Investigator for the Just Energy Transition: Localisation, Decent Work, SMMEs, and Sustainable Livelihoods project, covering South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya.
Dr Basani Baloyi is a Co-Programme Director at the IEJ. She is a feminist, development economist and activist. She gained her research experience while working on industrial policy issues in academia, at the Centre For Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) and Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) Unit.
Dr Andrew Bennie is Senior Researcher in Climate Policy and Food Systems at the IEJ. He has extensive background in academic and civil society research, organising, and activism. Andrew has an MA in Development and Environmental Sociology, and a PhD in Sociology on food politics, the agrarian question, and collective action in South Africa, both from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Juhi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Sociology from Wits University and an Honours degree in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town. Her current research focus is on social care regimes in the South African context, with a particular focus on state responses to Early Childhood Development and Long-Term Care for older persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her other research areas include feminist economics, worlds of work and the care economy.
Bandile Ngidi is the Programme Officer for Rethinking Economics for Africa. Bandile has previously worked at the National Minimum Wage Research Initiative and Oxfam South Africa. He holds a Masters in Development Theory and Policy from Wits University. He joined the IEJ in August 2018. Bandile is currently working on incubating the Rethinking Economics for Africa movement (working with students, academics and broader civil society). 
Liso Mdutyana has a BCom in Philosophy and Economics, an Honours in Applied Development Economics, and a Masters in Applied Development Economics from Wits University. His areas of interest include political economy, labour markets, technology and work, and industrial policy. Through his work Liso aims to show the possibility and necessity of economic development that prioritises human wellbeing for everyone.
Joan Stott holds a Bachelor of Business Science in Economics and a Master’s in Economics from Rhodes University. She brings to the IEJ a wealth of experience in public finance management, policy development, institutional capacity-building, and advancing socioeconomic and fiscal justice.
Siyanda Baduza is a Junior Basic Income Researcher at IEJ. He holds a BSc in Economics and Mathematics, an Honours degree in Applied Development Economics, and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Applied Development Economics at the University of the Witwatersrand. Siyanda’s research focuses on the impacts of social grants on wellbeing, with a particular focus on the gendered dynamics of this impact. His interests include applied micro-economics, policy impact evaluation, labour markets, gender economics, and political economy. He is passionate about translating economic research into impactful policy.
Shikwane is a Junior Programme Officer at IEJ focusing on civil society support and global governance in the G20. He has a background in legal compliance, IT contracting and student activism. He holds degrees in Political Studies and International Relations, as well as an LLB, from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr Tsega is a Senior Researcher focusing on Women’s Economic Empowerment within the G20. She examines gender equity in economic policy, with expertise in food systems and small enterprise development. She holds a PhD in development studies from the University of the Western Cape, an MA in Development Economics, and degrees in Development Studies and Economics from UNISA and Addis Ababa University.
Nerissa is a G20 Junior Researcher at IEJ, focusing on advancing civil society priorities within the G20 framework. She bridges data, research, and policy to advance inclusive economic frameworks. She is completing a Master’s in Data Science (e-Science) at the University of the Witwatersrand, and holds Honours and Bachelor’s Degrees in International Relations with distinction. She has worked as a Research Fellow at SAIIA and a Visiting Research Fellow at Ipea in Brazil.
Dr Mzwanele is a Senior Researcher supporting South Africa’s G20 Sherpa with policy research. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Birmingham and an MSc from the University of the Witwatersrand. His work covers open macroeconomics, trade, finance, and higher education policy, and he has published widely on inequality, unemployment, household debt and higher education curriculum reform.
Kamal is the Project Lead for IEJ’s G20 work, focusing on sovereign debt and development finance. He holds a BComm (Hons) in Applied Development Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand and an Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Economic Policies for the Global Transition. He has worked with SCIS, UNCTAD and co-founded Rethinking Economics for Africa.