UNDP/BDP Levy Conference: Unpaid Work and the Economy ;Gender, Poverty, and the Millennium Development Goals

Organized by Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme, in partnership with the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

October 1–3, 2005

The purpose of convening this conference was to share views, research, and methodologies from around the world, on women’s unpaid work and its relationship to the economy within the context of pro-poor development policies, an issue that is critical in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Women’s unpaid work consists of time spent on unpaid care for members of their families and communities. It also consists of time spent to make up for deficiencies in public infrastructure, including in the energy, health, and sanitation sectors. Such activities range from providing long term care to the chronically ill to fetching water and firewood.

During the last decade, an increasing number of countries have collected time-use data, and some have developed satellite accounts in order to measure the economic contributions of unpaid work. These efforts notwithstanding, unpaid work, which is disproportionately carried out by women and children, has not been sufficiently integrated in the formulation of public investment policies and pro-poor alternative macroeconomic strategies. In most developing countries, efforts to reduce poverty and reach the MDGs provide a timely opportunity to draw attention to the linkages between unpaid work and economic and social development. During the conference, several presenters focused on unpaid work and its connection to employment generation policies, inequality and poverty, deterioration of economic well being, and trade impact assessment. Other researchers presented up to date assessments of the state of the art in the areas of conducting time-use surveys, constructing satellite accounts, and developing economic models that include unpaid work.