From Promises to Action - GROW
Government Care-support Facilities and Services Remain Insufficient and Underutilised in Uganda
The government’s direct role in reducing and redistributing care and domestic work must be understood, especially by women and men. This brief shows the impact of a social-ecological model to challenge sticky gender and social norms that limit the uptake and use of available care services provided in society to reduce the burden of care and domestic work.
Following a panel of 1,176 households in 16 parishes, women and men who received interventions strongly agreed that the government should provide care for disabled/ill adults but less on health and childcare. Households indicate improved water sources, health centres, and electricity were available and used, while childcare facilities were insufficient and still underutilised. Significantly increased impacts on women’s perceptions of the government-providing healthcare and childcare infrastructure on those in the agreement are noted for those in the P.O.W.E.R. intervention by 19.5 percentage points and 13.7 percentage points, respectively.
In this regard, government efforts to invest in care support infrastructure and services cannot be overemphasised; however, increasing these uses requires addressing sticky negative gender and social norms, for example, that look at placing an infant in childcare as neglect by the mother who is branded irresponsible. Individual/household-level dialogues with women and men shall be critical in this mindset shift.
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- Published Feb 13, 2025