By: Sarbani Kattel, HNI Programme Coordinator
On 24 September, HomeNet International (HNI) affiliates from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan and Nepal came together for a regional cross-learning meeting to share experiences and approaches to advancing care systems that recognise the realities of home-based and informal workers. Across the five countries, a common message emerged: care is central to the lives and livelihoods of home-based workers, yet their care needs and contributions remain largely invisible in existing policies and systems.
In Indonesia, HomeNet Indonesia’s mapping across six provinces found that almost all home-based workers consulted were also responsible for caring for children or elderly family members, often because professional care services were unaffordable. Through dialogue with government ministries, social security institutions and local authorities, HomeNet Indonesia has advocated for better recognition of home-based workers within social protection systems. This has produced concrete outcomes, including support from village authorities in Serang Regency and other locations supporting home-based workers in their request to revise their social protection eligibility classifications so that they can avail them. Forty-two children of home-based workers also began accessing the Smart Indonesia Programme, providing support for transportation and education-related expenses. Advocacy has further contributed to the inclusion of home-based workers and care issues in the Ministry of Human Rights’ recommendations regarding human rights for informal workers. At the same time, challenges remain, particularly around social protection eligibility classifications and the implementation of Indonesia’s Care Economy Roadmap
In the Philippines, the focus has been on building the capacity of home-based worker leaders to understand, research and advocate on care systems. HomeNet Philippines developed learning materials in Filipino and supported local surveys, focus group discussions and interviews. A notable local advocacy outcome was achieved in Santiago City, where women worker advocates successfully advocated for a maternity protection provision in the Gender and Development Code, providing cash benefits for informal workers when they give birth. HomeNet Philippines has also connected local experiences with national and regional discussions on transforming care systems, women’s economic empowerment and the ASEAN Social Solidarity Economy-SDG agenda.
Thailand’s experience highlighted the importance of first helping workers recognise themselves as part of the care system. Through a workshop held in September, HomeNet Thailand brought together home-based and domestic workers to build understanding of the care economy and discuss regional frameworks, including the ASEAN Declaration on Care and the UNESCAP Model Framework for Action on the Care Economy. Workers identified practical priorities, including better-quality and longer-operating childcare services, government support for people providing unpaid care to family members with disabilities and older people, and mental health support for caregivers. Domestic workers also called for equal treatment of migrant workers and stronger enforcement of existing protections, including provisions relating to working hours and rest. These demands were subsequently presented to representatives of government agencies, including the Ministries of Labour and Social Development and Human Security, the Social Security Office and the National Health Security Office. HomeNet Thailand also succeeded in participating in a high-level ASEAN social protection conference, creating an opportunity for civil society perspectives to enter regional policy discussions. However, fragmented government approaches and the absence of a national care plan remain significant challenges.
In Pakistan, HomeNet Pakistan is generating community-level evidence on how unpaid care affects women’s livelihoods, wellbeing and economic empowerment. Consultations and focus group discussions in Karachi and Lahore found that women combine income-generating work with substantial household and caregiving responsibilities, resulting in time poverty, reduced working hours and earnings, exhaustion and limited personal time. Participants also identified inadequate childcare and health services, unreliable basic utilities and limited access to social protection as key concerns. Women called for community childcare and eldercare, accessible healthcare, reliable utilities, better income and market opportunities, greater sharing of care responsibilities and expanded social protection. These findings will inform advocacy and towards a shift from viewing care as primarily women’s responsibility towards a shared responsibility, using the 5Rs—Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Represent and Reward—as an advocacy framework.
In Nepal, Home-Based Workers Concern Society Nepal is working towards better understanding the relationship between home-based work and the care economy and to ensure that the needs of home-based workers are reflected in emerging care policies. The work involves research, stakeholder mapping and engagement with government, development partners, trade unions, experts, local governments and home-based worker organisations. While Nepal has a range of policies related to labour, social protection and care, early work points to gaps in recognising the specific care needs of home-based workers. The ongoing national discussion around an Integrated National Care Economy Policy presents an opportunity to bring HBW perspectives and demands into policy development. Further consultations, a national care needs demand note and stakeholder advocacy strategy are planned.
Policy Contexts Differ Across, Yet Home-based Workers’ Experiences are Similar
The cross-learning meeting demonstrated that while the policy contexts differ across countries, the experiences of home-based workers show striking similarities. Women home-based workers are simultaneously workers, caregivers and often the primary providers of unpaid care within their families and communities. Lack of affordable childcare and eldercare, inadequate social protection, limited recognition of unpaid care, insufficient support for caregivers and weak implementation of existing policies continue to constrain their economic opportunities and wellbeing.
The experiences shared also showed the value of combining worker organizing, community-level evidence, policy engagement and regional advocacy. From securing maternity protection in a local ordinance in the Philippines and education support in Indonesia, to bringing workers’ demands directly to government agencies in Thailand and generating evidence for policy advocacy in Pakistan and Nepal, HNI affiliates are demonstrating different pathways towards making care visible in policy and practice.
