About Embracing Carers

Unpaid care is an enabler of all other types of work and lifts up the global economy, but it is often invisible. Launched in May 2022, APEC Embracing Carers is an initiative overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of State that aims to raise awareness of the economic implications of unpaid care and explore evidence-based solutions to support and empower unpaid carers in the APEC region.

Recognizing women’s disproportionate share of unpaid work – UN Women finds that women spend about three times more hours on unpaid care and domestic work compared to men – the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) promotes cross-fora collaboration with the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) and the APEC Health Working Group (HWG) on this initiative. Together, these working groups prioritize solutions addressing barriers to women’s economic participation and overall well-being.

As the first APEC project to focus specifically on advancing the economic security and well-being of caregivers, APEC Embracing Carers focuses its scope on unpaid carers as a first step to building momentum for the care economy within APEC. However, the initiative recognizes that promoting policies that support unpaid carers is impossible without recognizing linkages to the broader care economy and the role of paid caregivers as critical stakeholders.

In order to create a more supportive environment for unpaid carers and strengthen the care infrastructure that all economies depend on, APEC Embracing Carers developed the APEC Embracing Carers Policy Toolkit to Address the Unpaid Care Gap (Toolkit). To inform the drafting of the Toolkit, the initiative convened an Expert Advisory Group comprising members of government, private sector, multilateral organizations, and civil society with representation across 15 APEC economies. Experts’ affiliations include the ILO, World Bank, and UN Women, bringing expertise ranging from childcare to long-term care.

Overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of State, APEC Embracing Carers is implemented by Access Partnership, on a voluntary basis, with support from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany as the lead private sector partner.