The road to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be paved with good intentions unless serious investments are made in building climate-resilient care infrastructure and services. Such investments will accelerate progress toward multiple SDGs in Africa: gender equality; combatting climate change; poverty reduction; full and productive employment; and affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy and other infrastructure.

Caregiving in sub-Saharan Africa, which is largely carried out by women, is characterized by several features. First, African countries have large youth populations and some of the highest fertility rates in the world at 4 children per woman. Second, the aging population is rising; while sub-Saharan Africa currently has a lower proportion of older adults at 5% of the population, the United Nations predicts that this will grow to 12% of the population on the continent by 2050. Importantly, adults tend to age in their own homes or with their children, who attend to their needs. Third, women in many African countries, especially in southern Africa, still have high unpaid care burdens due to HIV/AIDS. Fourth, most African countries have large infrastructure deficits (energy, water/sanitation, and transport), which make caregiving especially onerous. The continent also has the lowest proportion of paid care employment. Other demographic patterns will also affect the needs for building climate-resilient care, especially migration and the shift away from agriculture to employment (formal and informal) in urban areas.

Climate change increases the need for building a climate-resilient care and exacerbates the already-existing care challenges. Climate extremes are becoming more frequent and severe and disproportionately affect African economies and societies. African countries warmed at a rate of +0.3°C per decade between 1991 and 2023, a slightly faster rate than the global average. Some regions on the continent have been experiencing severe, long-term drought, crop failures, and famine; others, intense rains, sea-level rise, and both coastal and riparian flooding which lowers labor productivity, strains inputs to care, damages care infrastructure, and threatens food security. These challenges fall more heavily on women than men given the former’s disproportionate representation in agriculture, care, and informal work.

Investment is needed for climate-resilient care infrastructure. This involves investments in clean energy (and clean cooking), water/sanitation, and transport, all of which are inputs to effective and quality care. In low- and middle-income countries, more resilient power, water, sanitation, and transport sector assets would cost around 3% more, on average. But over their lifetimes, the net benefits could reach an estimated $4.2 trillion, or $4 for each $1 invested. Such investments have job-creating potential. Importantly, if designed with a mindset to reduce occupational sex segregation and ensure that the new green jobs are available to women, the transition to a low-carbon economy can be accelerated by an increased workforce. Even so, women will only be able to participate in the green transition if new care infrastructure is created.

Read the full article about climate-resilient care system in Africa by Caren Grown at Brookings.