International Consultant- Public Financing of Care Systems through Gender-Responsive Budgeting in East and Southern Africa: Evidence from Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Beyond

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Care work, both paid and unpaid, is a cornerstone of societal well-being and economic development, yet it remains undervalued and inequitably distributed. Across Africa, the systemic undervaluation of care work perpetuates gender inequalities, impedes women’s economic opportunities, and limits progress toward achieving gender equality. In sub-Sharan Africa, women and girls bear a disproportionate responsibility performing nearly 70% of unpaid care work, averaging 3 to 4 times more hours on unpaid care activities than men[1]. In Tanzania women spend an average of 4.5 hours per day on unpaid care work, compared to 1.5 hours for men. In Kenya, the figures are even higher with women spending up to 5 times more time on unpaid care and domestic work than men[2]. Unpaid care work, if assigned a monetary value, would represent significant shares of the GDP in countries, specifically, 7.2% in Ethiopia, 7.9% in Tanzania, 13.9% in Senegal, and 8.8% in South Africa[3].

Despite this enormous value, and its significant contribution to socio-economic development, unpaid care remains largely overlooked in fiscal and economic planning. Underinvestment in care services has real costs including limited childcare facilities, inadequate social protection, and lack of essential infrastructure such as clean water and energy. These limited services disproportionately affect women’s ability to participate in the labour market, pursue educational opportunities or participate in leadership. In turn, this reduces productivity, limits human capital development and tax revenues, and constrains inclusive growth. In many African countries public investment in care services such as childcare and early childhood development is extremely low. Comparative analyses find government spending on pre-primary/ECD is typically under 0.2% of GDP and accounting for around 2% or less of education budgets, well below international targets[4].

Public sector investment in care services and care-supporting infrastructure is critical to reducing unpaid care work, creating decent jobs, and advancing inclusive growth. Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) enables governments to effectively address gender inequalities through policies, plans and budgets by integrating the needs and priorities of women and men, girls, and boys, including the most excluded. For instance, expanding childcare services in Senegal and Tanzania could generate over 900,000 and 7 million formal jobs, respectively5. Such investments would support the reduction and redistribution of care work disproportionately borne by women while fostering inclusive development and gender equality.

Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is critical for public financing of care services because it creates a framework for public resources to be allocated and spent to reduce, redistribute and recognize unpaid care work, thereby strengthening care infrastructure, expanding services, and advancing women’s economic empowerment. Countries including Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya have made notable progress in financing care through public policies, sector investments, underpinned by gender responsive budgeting approaches. In Rwanda, gender responsive budgeting has successfully embedded gender analysis into budget planning and enhanced visibility of gender issues in public finance. Kenya’s GRB efforts have improved visibility of gender equality in plans and budgets and stimulated debate on gender allocations in budgets. However, systematic integration, accountability mechanisms, and measurable impacts on gender equality outcomes are still evolving and require stronger institutionalization and analytical capacity to fully realize the potential of GRB in advancing gender equity.

Recent GRB implementation in select Tanzanian local councils demonstrate emerging institutionalization at sub-national level, with concrete budget allocations for women’s economic empowerment and strengthened local capacity to integrate gender priorities into planning and expenditure decisions. With technical support from UN Women and partners, local government planners and officials in several districts both on Mainland and in Zanzibar received training and guidance to translate national GRB guidelines into local budgets, enhancing their ability to identify and fund gender-responsive interventions linked to women’s economic participation and basic services including access to water and childcare services[5].

These efforts, however, continue to face challenges due in part to a lack of systematic documentation, impact analysis, and harmonized monitoring frameworks that limit evidence on how GRB allocations translate into concrete care investments and measurable gender equality outcomes, thereby constraining accountability, policy learning, and sustained financing at scale.

Objective of the Consultancy

This consultancy will produce high-quality documentation with comparative case studies that generate actionable evidence and recommendations on how care priorities can be integrated into gender-responsive planning and budgeting processes in East and Southern Africa. The report will contribute to strengthening public sector accountability and inform policy dialogue on financing care systems as a driver of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. The consultant will closely work with the national consultant in Tanzania, and generate further analysis in Rwanda, Kenya, and other selected countries, on research evidence that will support governments, civil society, parliaments, and development partners to better understand how public resources are planned, allocated, and utilized to finance care systems as a core aspect of the economy, as well as the barriers that impede robust investments in care. The consultant will report to the Deputy Country Representative of UN Women Tanzania and work closely with the Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist at Regional and Country Office levels.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative and Women’s Economic Empowerment specialist of UN Women Tanzania and working closely with the UN Women Women’s Economic Empowerment team and relevant teams at other UN Women Country Offices the consultant’s main duties and responsibilities are as follows. The consultant will work collaboratively with an national consultant as part of a team with complementary deliverables.

• Asses national, sectoral, and local government budgets of selected countries (Kenya, Rwanda and any other potential country) to measure integration of care priorities, focusing on care-related sectors (childcare, health, water, energy, social protection) one sector per country to identify the extent to which care priorities are integrated into planning, budgeting, and financing processes.
• Analyze existing care strategies, plans and budgets to assess how care needs are identified, costed, and financed at different levels of government
• Work with national consultant in Tanzania to develop tools/ measures that will capture country perspectives of innovations, good practices, accountability mechanisms, and gaps in care-related policy, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring from a gender equality perspective.

1. UN Women. (2021). The Care Agenda: A Regional Perspective for East and Southern Africa. Available at: https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/esa_care_framing_final_2b_3.pdf.
2. UN Women (2024) Kenya time-use survey and care assessment: Summary brief. New York: UN Women. Available at: https://data.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/documents/Publications/2024/Kenya_time-use_care-assessment_summarybrief.pdf
3. UN Women. (2021). Investing in free universal childcare in sub-Saharan Africa: A case for bold action to achieve sustainable development.
4. Harris, K., Ajayi, K. and Mainali, A. (n.d.). Childcare and Early Childhood Development Expenditures in Africa Comparative Policy Insights for Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment. [online] Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/childcare-and-early-childhood-development-expenditures-africa-comparative-policy.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2025].
5. United Nations Tanzania SDG Acceleration Fund (2024) Final narrative progress report – Support to UN Tanzania coordination on gender equality and women’s empowerment: reporting period November 2023 – March 2024. MPTF Office.