Opportunities for Public and Private Investment in the Care Economy
Investing in the care economy is critical for improving economic growth, gender equity and social impact. The five Rs is a global strategy used to think about how to support both paid and unpaid caregivers: Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, Representation. Here I’m sharing opportunities for improving the care economy through the five Rs via some specific public and private approaches. Please share others you know of in the comments!
The pandemic may have shed light upon the global caregiving crisis, but caregivers — mostly women — are still struggling. Mothers continue to exit the workforce, the demand for paid caregiving outweighs the supply, and the economy is suffering as a result. Investment in the care economy is a $1 Trillion+ opportunity that has the potential to improve gender equity, workforce retention, economic growth and quality of life. It also requires a collaborative and multifaceted effort from both the public and private sectors. Here I’m sharing many of the ways we can all to contribute to improvements in the care economy as well as some specific initiatives and companies that are leading the way.
Public Sector Approaches
Caregiving most certainly has a “public good” element, and requires a level of government involvement in order to maximize both productivity, equity and happiness in society. This level of public involvement is definitely not being met in the US and most other countries, and here are areas where it could be improved.
Not surprisingly, the first thing to tackle are policies that promote work-family balance, such as paid family and medical leave and flexible work arrangements, to enable caregivers to balance work and caregiving responsibilities. We can easily look to examples from countries like Sweden to see how paid leave decreases caregiving stress, keeps women in the workforce and leads to greater equality within households. It’s important to look at this not simply from a birth mother or medical perspective, but from a comprehensive caregiving perspective.
Investing in public education and training programs for caregivers to improve the quality and professionalism of care work. In the US, the Administration for Community Living’s National Family Caregiver Support Program is an example.
Increasing funding for childcare subsidies and programs, such as Head Start and Early Head Start, to increase access to affordable and high-quality childcare services.
Strengthening labor protections for caregivers, such as minimum wage laws and overtime pay, to ensure that they are compensated fairly for their work. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is doing a lot of great work in this area globally, while the National domestic Workers Alliance is focused on the US.
Expanding access to public healthcare services, such as Medicare and Medicaid, to support elderly, disabled and pregnant individuals who require ongoing care, and have shown to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable mothers and children.
Private Sector Approaches
While it’s vital for the government to play a role in supporting caregivers and ensuring their rights, there are many opportunities for the private sector to support and expand care services while contributing to jobs and economic growth. In 2022 child-care startups raised $108 million in venture capital funding, and investments in homecare and eldercare also increased nearly threefold between 2017 and 2021.
Developing new technologies, products and services that can improve the quality, quantity and efficiency of various types of care services, such as telehealth and remote monitoring systems and personalized support. There are so many care economy social enterprises popping up globally, these are just a few:
Zolvers is a social enterprise that matches customers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico who are looking for trained, background-checked domestic and care workers. Zolvers offers customers ease and security, while providing domestic and care workers with decent jobs, access to training programs, financial inclusion and government social security programs.
Homely connects domestic workers in Mexico to clients and ensures good working conditions for them.
Wiggle room helps caregivers grow their childcare business
Kidogo Identifies, trains and supports female entrepreneurs (Mamapreneurs) in Kenya to start or grow their own high quality and affordable child care micro-businesses in their local low-income communities.
Wellthy provide personalized support to help you tackle the logistical and administrative tasks of caring for the ones you love, including yourself.
Symplifica is a Colombian social enterprise that helps formalize domestic workers, providing benefits to both the employer and employee.
In the absence of (or in addition to) public caregiver leave policies, private companies can provide and encourage paid leave and flexible work arrangements for employees who need to provide care for family members. This should include not only new mothers, but non-birthing parents and other caregivers. The CARE Fund invests in campaigns and coalitions that are at the forefront of collaborative policy advocacy efforts, with a focus on universal paid leave, quality care jobs, and robust financing for both long term services and supports and early care and education. Empodera Impact Capital is focused on health enterprises benefiting women, many of which are care-related; it also applies a comprehensive gender lens and gender technical assistance into the portfolio.
Increasing private investment in the care sector to create new business opportunities and drive economic growth. 2X global has a Care Economy Community of Practice that is building the investment case for care opportunities. Springbank Collective has a care-specific investment thesis and funds pre-seed through Series A care startups. Some of Portfolia’s funds include care-related companies and all employ a gender lens.
In addition to direct investment, implementing a wholistic (i.e. non-binary) care lens as part of ESG screening in both public and private impact investment portfolios. This means getting specific about what even constitutes a “good” family leave policy, for example, rather than just having one, and provides a metric through which to measure the social impact of these investments.
Implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives to promote equity in the workplace and ensure that caregivers from diverse backgrounds are represented and valued. Care.com is a care economy business that also lays out a comprehensive DEI strategy that not only focuses on a percentage of underrepresented employees, but that extends to how products and services are designed, resource groups, education around neurodiversity, partnerships and commitments related to fair wage practices, and diversity in their supply chain.
Providing funding and support for community-based care initiatives, such as cooperative models of care and grassroots caregiving networks.
Improving the care economy requires a multi-faceted approach that involves both the public and private sectors. Context is important and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are many, many ways to support both career and unpaid caregivers while also growing the economy and increasing gender equity. Like any form of societal change, a critical factor is the mindset shift toward realization that prioritizing care workers benefits us all.
How does your company generate social impact by supporting caregivers and the care economy? Share ideas and other resources below!
