The 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit has endorsed the “ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy and Fostering Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community,” which reaffirms ASEAN’s commitment to strengthening the care economy and fostering resilience toward the post-2025 ASEAN Community.  

The Declaration, aligns with the four policy categories of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)’s Model Framework for Action on the Care Economy. It calls on governments to implement a comprehensive set of policies that address care infrastructure, social protection, care services, and employment. 

“By promoting transformative policies that invest in care, we can pave the way for increased female workforce participation, better access to education, and overall, more meaningful opportunities for women across ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole,” underscored United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana in her opening remarks.  

During the Summit, ESCAP also presented its Model Framework to ASEAN member States and key stakeholders, providing guidance for countries in the region to develop national action plans aimed at strengthening the care economy and reducing women’s unpaid care and domestic work. 

The ASEAN Community has increasingly recognized the importance of the care economy, beginning with the commissioning of a joint ESCAP-ASEAN report on addressing the care economy in the region. This recognition was further reinforced with the endorsement of the ASEAN Comprehensive Framework on the Care Economy in 2021, followed by the Jakarta Roundtable on Building a Caring Economy in January 2023 and a major Regional Forum on Care Work in July 2023 hosted by ASEAN Committee on Women, the ASEAN Secretariat and ESCAP.