African gender development institutions have identified paid and unpaid care work, climate action and a gender-responsive green transition as priorities for advancing women’s rights, ahead of the 71st session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW71).The priorities emerged from an African ministerial pre-consultation meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from October 22nd to the 29th, 2026, as part of preparations for the global session, with the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC), led by its Director Mrs. Sandra OULATÉ FATTOH, taking part in the consultations. The proposed priorities place paid and unpaid care work at the centre of discussions on gender equality, recognising the need to address the economic and social implications of care responsibilities.
The African consultations took place within a framework of exchanges and dialogue among African nations on key issues related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, notably the recognition and valuation of paid and unpaid care work, climate policies, and gender-responsive disaster risk reduction. During the CSW71 session, scheduled for March 8th to the 19th, 2027, in New York, Africa will defend its gender equality priorities by presenting a Common African Position on these issues, as well as its bid to host CSW74.
The preliminary conclusions of the consultations focused on the effective integration of these issues and called on African States to adopt public policies aimed at reducing and redistributing the care burden, strengthening local social services, promoting decent work in care professions, and fostering a more equitable sharing of domestic responsibilities between women and men. The EGDC Director reaffirmed the importance of making the care economy and gender-responsive climate action key levers for social justice, women’s economic empowerment, and sustainable development as part of a unified African movement to advocate for common priorities on the international stage.
Climate change is aggravating the problem of unpaid care work, increasing the intensity and time spent by women and girls on tasks such as fetching water, collecting firewood and food, and caring for sick family members after floods, droughts or heat stress. In West and Central Africa, women spend 3–5 times more hours on unpaid care than men, driving time poverty and restricting economic opportunities, with climate policies that overlook care risking reinforcing inequalities and limiting the impact of climate investments.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women spend an estimated 40 billion hours annually on unpaid care work, with climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation forcing many women and girls, especially in rural, low-income areas, to spend more time collecting household food, water and fuel. The UNFCCC COP30 in 2025 marked a turning point in global climate policy by recognising care systems as integral to adaptation and a just transition, with the new Gender Action Plan of the UNFCCC for the first time recognising care work as an emerging issue essential for gender equality and climate action.
ECOWAS identified the care economy as a regional priority for the first time during two policy dialogues co-organised with UN Women in 2025, with the bloc developing a Regional Care Action Plan in 2026, organised around seven strategic axes providing a framework for coordinated regional action to strengthen care systems across Member States. The regional programme on gender-responsive climate action and the green economy, developed by ECOWAS specialised agencies with technical support from UN Women, aims to strengthen women’s participation and leadership in the green transition, particularly through access to green jobs, climate finance, and entrepreneurship opportunities in agriculture, renewable energy, water management, and the circular economy.
The challenge now is to translate the commitments and priorities announced at the ministerial pre-consultation into concrete public policy priorities and funding commitments, with the ECOWAS communication not providing details of specific policy recommendations adopted or implementation measures arising from the meeting. The priorities are expected to inform Africa’s engagement in preparations for CSW71, although further details of the continent’s formal position and proposed actions were not contained in the statement.
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