Harare – In a landmark move that could reshape Zimbabwe’s economic and social landscape, the Senate on Wednesday afternoon began debating a groundbreaking motion demanding comprehensive legislation to recognize, reduce, and redistribute the country’s vast burden of unpaid care and domestic work—work performed overwhelmingly by women and girls.
The motion, moved by Honourable Senator Maybe Mbowa with cross-party support, declares this unpaid labour a vital but invisible national crisis, trapping women in poverty, worsening gender inequality, and stifling economic growth.
The motion calls for the urgent drafting of a Unpaid Care and Domestic Work Bill and a national survey to calculate its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“We must no longer let this essential work stay hidden in the shadows of our national planning. The time to act is now,” Senator Mbowa told the chamber.
“This kind of work is done almost entirely by women and girls without recognition, reward or rest. This imbalance is not only unjust but also deprives women and girls of time to learn, earn, lead and thrive.”
The motion is buttressed by stark data: Zimbabwean women dedicate an average of 25.9 hours per week to unpaid care, compared to 6.1 hours for men. Over 75% of this work globally falls on women, a disparity that sees 63% of Zimbabwean women cite care duties as the main barrier to skills training.
Senator Mbowa argued this “time poverty” directly fuels the gender employment gap and economic stagnation.
The proposed legislation would mandate the Ministries of Public Service, and Finance to develop policy, increase budget allocations for care infrastructure like childcare centres and clean water, and commission the first official study to quantify the economic worth of unpaid care.
The UN’s 5R Framework, which is Recognise, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward and Represent, offers a comprehensive approach to care policies. The toolkit
urges the Government to invest more in healthcare infrastructure and to
ensure decent work for paid caregivers.
“The private sector must also play its part through paid leave and flexible work arrangements. We call upon the Government to prioritise budgetary allocations
towards social protection programmes, infrastructure and services to
alleviate the disproportionate burden on women and girls.
There is an economic imperative to do so. Unpaid care work is the invisible engine of Zimbabwe’s economy. Failing to recognise it sustains gender inequality and hinders national development,” she said.
In a powerful seconding speech, Honourable Senator Nohlahla Mlotshwa linked the issue directly to land and property rights, arguing that rural women who bear the heaviest care burden are often “dispossessed dressed as culture” when widowed. want women to enter the formal economy, we must release them from the chains of invisible labour and invisible rights,” she stated, calling for any future bill to address land ownership.
The motion cites successful models from Kenya, Uruguay, and Rwanda, where recognizing care work and supporting caregivers has boosted women’s economic participation. It frames the issue as a matter of constitutional imperative, aligning with Sections 17 and 56 on gender equality and international commitments like CEDAW.
Said Mlotshwa:
“Rural women bear the greatest burden of unpaid work. Their demands till the land dawn, walking kilometres for water and firewood, raising children, caring for the sick and the elderly, producing food that feeds this country, while having no legal ownership of the land they work on.
Rural women invest their entire lives into land that legally belongs to someone else and when their husband dies, they lose everything: the fields, the homes, the livestock, and even the social protection that came with the marriage. We call that a tradition. Let us call it what it really is, dispossession dressed as culture.”
A benchmark visit to Kenya in February 2025 organised by the Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), Zimbabwe’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus observed a practical model for alleviating the burden of unpaid care work: an on-site daycare centre at Nairobi’s Mwariro Market.
The facility, costing vendors less than one dollar per day, enables mothers who dominate the market’s stalls to maintain their businesses without interruption, a stark contrast to Zimbabwe’s own underfunded and limited social care infrastructure. The caucus concluded that such supportive infrastructure is essential to freeing women for economic participation and should be mandated through national policy and legislation.
WALPE is a Zimbabwe-based feminist organization dedicated to achieving gender equality by empowering women to become transformative leaders. With a stated mission to create a just and inclusive society, WALPE conducts capacity-building, advocacy, and research programs.
The organization reports having trained over 15,000 women for political office and actively lobbies for gender-responsive laws and policies. Its work includes promoting violence-free democratic participation and generating evidence-based research to inform gender reforms.
The organization is a leading advocate for a comprehensive National Care Policy, campaigning to recognize, reduce, redistribute, and reward Unpaid Care and Domestic Work (UCDW).
It argues that formal policy and legislation are essential to value women’s contributions, alleviate their disproportionate burden, and enable their full participation in leadership and the economy.
Its recent advocacy has included high-level summits, direct engagement with parliamentarians, and nationwide public awareness campaigns.
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