1 Unpaid care work in times of the COVID-19 crisis: Gendered impacts, emerging evidence and promising policy responses Paper prepared for the UN Expert Group Meeting “Families in development: Assessing progress, challenges and emerging issues. Focus on modalities for IYF+30” Esuna Dugarova 1 1. Introduction Today the humanity is going through the multidimensional crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is unprecedented in its scale and magnitude. While it started as a health shock, it has spread to nearly all countries with adverse spillover effects on the economy, education, food security and gender equality. The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened what Nancy Fraser called the ‘crisis of care’ or of social reproduction in a broader sense (Fraser 2016), which lies at the foundation of economy, society and households, enabling structures and institutions to function. Social reproduction is about the creation and maintenance of social bonds across and among generations, from raising children and supporting the elderly to social organization and sustaining connections in larger communities. With social distancing and lockdown measures, these bonds have been disrupted or put on hold by the pandemic, putting a strain on social reproduction. Women and girls, especially those with intersectional characteristics, are particularly disadvantaged during the crisis due to unequal structures, power relations and social norms that prevent them from accessing basic services, including healthcare and education, and participating in decision-making processes that affect their lives. Consequently, they face higher risks of falling into poverty, dropping out of schools, and experiencing hunger and malnutrition. Yet, the COVID-19 crisis has also brought to light, in an unprecedented way, the critical role of care (Wenham et al. 2020), which is predominately performed by women both as frontline healthcare workers and informal care providers in their families. It provides an opportunity to build the world back better by putting care and social reproduction at the heart of the development agenda, reiterating a long-standing call for systemic change and reconstruction of power relations. In the post-COVID era, such a gendered pathways approach is not only a development imperative but is also a prerequisite for an ethical world order (Dugarova 2020). Against this backdrop, the current paper provides an analytical review of the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, focusing on unpaid care work, both direct care such as caregiving services to household members and indirect care entailing domestic work within the household. It examines emerging evidence using available data disaggregated by gender, age and other factors, and looks into promising policy responses globally. The paper concludes with gender-responsive policy 1 The views presented in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations system. It is written in the author’s personal capacity, during her unpaid care work and on her own time.