Sharing the Motherload: Engaging fathers and other key stakeholders to transform gender policy and foster care economies - Impact Story 4

This ACT CoP Impact Story presents the key impacts from the Scaling Care Innovations in Africa Project ‘Sharing the Motherload: Engaging fathers and other key stakeholders to transform gender policy and foster care economies‘.

This project set out to address the systemic undervaluing of unpaid care and social
reproductive labour in South Africa. It demonstrates how lived experience–based,
participatory approaches can reposition unpaid care as a public issue and economic
concern. By treating care as infrastructure and positioning mothers and fathers as
legitimate knowledge holders, the project offers a practical model for evidence-to-policy
engagement that complements quantitative research.