Who bears the hidden costs of disasters? Gendered care work and crisis planning

00:00:02 Introduction 

Welcome Stockholm Environment institutes power imbalance conversations on sustainability and justice, where we explore how power imbalances create and sustain social and environmental inequalities in the light of intensifying environmental biodiversity and climate challenges. What can we do to tip the scales for a more balanced, just and sustainable transition? 

00:00:26 Introduction 

Care sensitive policies are not just about fairness, but they are about building resilient communities and more effective disaster risk responses.  

Power dynamics are deeply entrenched in all social and institutional structures. Men tend to have more power in decision-making. 

Shifting these power dynamics is a direct challenge to power structures that limit women’s economic and social mobility. 

00:01:02 Charmaine Caparas 

Welcome back to Power in Balance. I’m Charmaine Caparas and today we are tackling a topic that is often overlooked and that is gendered care work and how it fits into the climate crisis preparedness and response. 

Basically, who ends up carrying the burden when disasters hit, and what can we do about it? I am really excited to have two fantastic guests with me today. The first one is Eleonora Banfi, who leads the Al Nada Women’s Studies unit at the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development, or ARDD. Our second guest is Laura Del Duca, a policy fellow at SEI whose research focuses on gender in crisis situations. Eleanora and Laura, welcome to the podcast. 

00:01:48 Eleanora Banfi  

Thank you, Charmaine. 

00:01:51 Laura Del Duca 

Thank you so much for having us, Charmaine. We’re excited to talk about the subject. 

00:01:57 Charmaine Caparas 

So, let’s start by setting the stage. You both published a policy brief on gendered care work during disasters. Give us a bit of background on how this body of work came to be, like what was the inspiration or what was the question that we’re trying to answer? 

00:02:18 Laura Del Duca 

We wrote this policy brief, Eleanora and I, last year for the G20 in Brazil. The T20, the think tank research part of the G20, commissioned a long list of policy briefs and many of them were focused on care – ours was the one on care and crisis. 

So, in the policy brief, we gave six pathways to integrate gendered caregiving into crisis management. We then map these six pathways onto the four priority areas of the Sendai framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015- 2030. 

And these four priorities are: (1) Understanding disaster risk; (2) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; (3) Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; (4) Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to build back better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Our policy brief mapped the pathways onto the priorities and showed that enhanced understanding of how caregiving roles intersect with disaster risk allows for more accurate risk assessments and for crisis preparedness and response to target support to vulnerable groups.  

00:03:33 Eleanora Banfi 

Thank you for the question, Charmaine. I think that we can start by saying what our care responsibilities are. We talk about care when we talk about looking after children, the elderly or the sick. And very often these care responsibilities and this care work is overwhelmingly shouldered by women. Especially during climate disasters, these responsibilities are even more intensified. So, women may struggle to access resources, evacuate quickly, or even participate in recovery efforts because they are focused on the care that they are giving for others. 

This makes them more vulnerable and often leaves them excluded also from the decision-making processes in crisis response; they don’t have a real say on how the response to the crisis takes place. 

00:04:45 Charmaine Caparas 

Thank you, Eleanora. That really paints a very vivid picture. Now, Laura, I need to ask you: Can you share an example of how humanitarian response may have overlooked these vulnerabilities? 

00:04:58 Laura Del Duca 

Thank you, Charmaine. So in many responses, shelters or aid distribution points are not designed with caregivers in mind. What is provided becomes inaccessible to caregivers and those they care for. A good example comes from the water, sanitation and hygiene sector and, for instance, toilets. These are often too small for caregivers to bring one or also more children, and for someone with mobility challenges to bring help. So this makes things that many people don’t really have to think about a lot a challenge for caregivers and those they care for. 

00:05:39 Charmaine Caparas 

 The policy brief lays out six ways that we can better factor in gendered care work when preparing for disasters. The first one says: Sharing care responsibilities more fairly. In reality, what does that actually look like and how can we make that happen – if it’s not happening yet? 

00:06:02 Laura Del Duca 

When we started working on this, we listed the G20 countries and then we ordered them by women’s time spent on unpaid care and domestic work compared to men’s. So essentially, we made a list of which countries is care work most gendered? And there we have India topped the list with 10 hours of unpaid care for women for each hour that men spend on care. Japan and Korea are second and third with five hours and we go from there. Germany, Canada are the lowest. 

And then we added the Global Climate Risk Index rank 2019 to each of these countries. What we saw there then was that the countries where care is most gendered – India, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Turkey – are also the countries that rank highest for climate risk. 

00:06:56 Charmaine Caparas 

Are there countries that have policies that are maybe more progressive in a sense? Like what are some of the best practices that other countries who are not doing very well on making care work fair. What are some of the best practices that they can emulate?  

00:07:15 Eleonora Banfi 

A stronger example comes from Sweden and Iceland, where nontransferable parental leaves quotas encourage fathers to take an equal role in caregiving. In fact, in Sweden, parents receive 480 days of leave, with 90 days exclusively reserved for each parent. If one parent does not use their days, they lose them. In Iceland, each parent is entitled to six months of leave with an additional six weeks transferable between them. These policies have in fact increased fathers’ involvement in childcare and also long-term household responsibilities. 

When we look at the community level, we can see that, for example, in Brazil initiative such as the Movimiento de la Mujer Trabajadora Rural del Nordeste, there are cooperative childcare models where women share caregiving duties, making it easier for them to keep working or to look for a job. 

Therefore, to make caregiving fairer in reality, we need for sure government policies and corporate responsibilities with the flexible work policies and incentives for men to take leave. But we surely need cultural change. 

00:08:54 Charmaine Caparas 

Another pathway is shock-responsive social protection. Eleanora, can you explain to us what that is and why it is important? 

00:09:04 Eleanora Banfi 

Yeah, of course. Shock-responsive social protection refers to adapting existing social safety nets to address the immediate and also the long-term impacts of disasters. So, for example, cash transfers that target caregivers can help them to recover faster during the crisis and also, on a long term to continue their essential roles during the crisis and afterwards. 

00:09:39 Charmaine Caparas 

 It’s interesting that you mentioned cash transfers. I know this is being used in some developing countries like India, the Philippines where I am from, and Bangladesh. Why is this an important element for disaster recovery? 

00:09:57 Eleanora Banfi  

A great example is the Bangladesh Employment Generation Program for the Poorest (EGPP) offers a short-term public works jobs to vulnerable populations, prioritizing women caregivers. In 2024, the program expanded to include digital wage payments, improving its efficiency and also ensuring that there is a faster relief during economic downturns or disasters. 

Why is this important? And caregivers, because of their role, are often excluded from economic recovery efforts because their work is unpaid. Normally targeted cash transfers help them stay financially stable while continuing their caregiving duties. Also, disasters intensify caregiving burdens. So, from looking after children to caring for elderly or family members with special needs, programs like the ones that we talked about provide a safety net that prevents deepening poverty and vulnerability. 

00:11:17 Charmaine Caparas 

I totally agree. I think cash transfers can actually influence gender dynamics—for example, men and women were more likely to talk about household spending if the cash transfers directly go to the women. Also cash-for-work programs can give women some say over how that money will be spent. For all of these to be truly effective, all cash transfer programs should consider gender equality and women’s economic empowerment from the very start.  

Now, let’s get into the inclusion of caregiver voices in crisis management. It’s very common that care giver voices are often overlooked for many reasons. It could be that they are at home doing most of the care work, or they don’t have “status” in the community. So now my question for you, Eleanora, is: Why is it critical that their voices be included? 

00:12:27 Eleonora Banfi 

Well, the voices of caregivers are critical because they have first-hand knowledge of the community needs. In particular, they know the most vulnerable population. Therefore, including their voices in crisis management can ensure that there are more effective and equitable responses. It’s about valuing their lived experiences as much as the technical expertise, you know. 

00:12:57 Charmaine Caparas 

Thank you so much. So you know the title of our podcast is ‘Power in Balance’. Power dynamics often shape who bears the brunt of care work and who benefits from disaster responses. You have mentioned it usually goes into women, by default becomes their responsibility. 

So, Laura, how do these dynamics play out in crisis settings? Who benefits from disaster responses? 

00:13:25 Laura Del Duca 

Yes, power dynamics are deeply entrenched in all social and institutional structures. And as Eleonora said, this of course is context specific that men tend to have more power in decision-making. 

This is also what we see in crises. In sudden onset crises, for instance, humanitarian conduct, focus group discussions as part of the first needs assessment and without explicit effort to make those discussions accessible also to caregivers, they are unlikely to be able to participate.  

This perpetuates a cycle of inequity, as the response the needs assessment informs then more likely fails to account for their realities and their needs.  

00:14:07 Charmaine Caparas 

Thank you so much, Laura. Eleonora, we come to you now. How can addressing gendered care work shift these power dynamics? 

00:14:16 Eleanora Banfi 

Shifting these power dynamics is a direct challenge to power structures that limit women’s economic and social mobility. So when caregiving is recognized, supported, and redistributed, it transforms societies and enable more equitable participation in the workforce and in the decision-making spaces.  

A strong policy driven example is Uruguay’s national care system which provides state funded childcare, elderly care and disability care services. Since its launch in 2015, it has helped thousands of women transition into formal employment by reducing their unpaid caregiving burden. In Kenya, the ‘Care work is work’ campaign is advocating for legal recognition of unpaid care work. The campaign ads successfully influenced the tax credits for single mothers and pushed for minimum wages for domestic workers. 

00:15:31 Eleanora Banfi 

Recognizing the economic value of caregiving through acknowledging caregiving as valuable labor and not just a private responsibility allows us to distribute care more equitably, allowing them to pursue education and economic opportunities. It also allows us to shift workplace policies, ensuring that both men and women can take parental leave and access flexible work arrangements and push through legal and financial recognition including caregiver tax benefits and pension schemes. Therefore, the redistribution of care work doesn’t just benefit individuals, it strengthens families, economies and societies as a whole. 

00:16:30 Charmaine Caparas 

 

Before we end, Laura and Eleonora, what are some of the key takeaways for policymakers from this really amazing policy brief? 

00:16:41 Laura Del Duca 

I would say the main take away is that addressing gendered care work isn’t just about fairness. It’s about building more effective disaster response by integrating care sensitive approaches into policy and practice we can reduce vulnerabilities, optimize the resources that we do have and create more resilient communities. 

00:17:04 Eleanora Banfi 

So today, reading the G20 Declaration 2024, I could notice that it makes very good progress in recognizing the inequality and gender disparities. But it still falls very short in addressing the critical role of caregivers especially in crisis preparedness and in the response. While it supports social protection, gender equality and poverty reduction, it lacks concrete commitments to redistributing care work or integrating caregivers into crisis decision-making. 

00:17:48 Laura Del Duca 

I would say a key challenge in gender and climate discussions is ensuring that gender analyses are grounded in evidence rather than advocacy narratives that paint women as the vulnerable group. Because misconceptions hinder effective adaptation and they even contribute to backlash and in some cases, it’s not even true. For instance, women are generally believed to be more affected by disasters, but for example in landslides, men who are more likely to work outside the home are often at greater risk. But at SEI we are particularly interested in strengthening the science to policy link. 

00:18:23 Eleanora Banfi 

Our conversation today highlighted how care sensitive policies are not just about fairness, but they are about building resilient communities and more effective disaster risk responses. So even if G20 has taken steps in the right direction, we still have work to do. 

The advocacy and the work that SEI and the ARDD have been doing, must be reinforced and push for explicit care-sensitive policies to ensure that no one is left behind in global crisis response. 

00:19:02 Laura Del Duca 

I fully agree with you Elenora, and I also think that it’s super important to think before crises hit to really think in the preparedness stage because once you are in a crisis, there is no time to integrate those parts that we talk about in the policy brief. 

00:19:16 Charmaine Caparas 

Thank you so much Eleanora and Laura for sharing these insights and practical solutions. 

00:19:22 Eleanora Banfi 

Thank you, Charmaine, and thank you Laura for involving me in this. 

00:19:27 Laura Del Duca 

Thank you so much Charmaine and in order. It was lovely to speak with you. 

00:19:31 Charmaine Caparas 

For our listeners who are interested in reading more about the policy brief that we have mentioned today and learning more about gendered care work in climate crises, you can find the policy brief at the SEI website: www.sei.org 

00:19:47 Charmaine Caparas 

Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Don’t forget to join us next time on ‘Power in Balance’. Until then, stay inspired and stay engaged. Thank you.  

00:20:01 Outro 

Power imbalance conversations on sustainability and justice. For more information, visit our website www.sei.org