Africa Launch Event
Many important economic and policy questions focus on gender. Are families and governments investing equally in girls and boys? How do men and women contribute to the economy? What policies are needed to address gender discrimination in the home and the workplace?
The Counting Women’s Work (CWW) project, a world-wide research project designed to address these and other issues, was launched on May 15, 2014 at an event in Cape Town, South Africa. The project is part of the National Transfer Accounts research network, which has revealed how we produce, consume, share and save by age in countries around the world. Video of the event appears below.
The CWW project was formed to add gender to our understanding of the generational economy and to address a major flaw in economic accounting: national accounts include only market production, omitting unpaid household and care work often done by women and girls. The CWW project has therefore developed methodology to estimate economic flows for unpaid household and care work allowing us to conceptualise and estimate transfers of time as well as money.
Beginning in 2014, CWW has brought together researchers from countries around the world, including at least 6 African countries, to compile comprehensive estimates of the generational economy disaggregated by gender, including the value of unpaid time. Country-specific and comparative results will be extremely useful in formulating and evaluating policies aimed at reducing inequalities typically suffered by women and girls.
The Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town hosted African country research teams from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa at the launch of the Counting Women’s Work research in Africa.
Download event flyer here.
