A/RES/80/152 GA

United Nations A/RES/80/152 General Assembly Distr.: General 18 December 2025 25-20785 (E) *2520785* Eightieth session Agenda item 22 Eradication of poverty and other development issues Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 15 December 2025 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/80/555, para. 7)] 80/152. Contribution of the care economy to sustainable development The General Assembly, Reaffirming its resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which it adopted a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative Sustainable Development Goals and targets, its commitment to working tirelessly for the full implementation of the Agenda by 2030, its recognition that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, its commitment to achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – in a balanced and integrated manner, and to building upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seeking to address their unfinished business, Welcoming and reaffirming the commitments made in the 2030 Agenda to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, including through the Sustainable Development Goal on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and recognizing that gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and the full, equal, meaningful and effective participation and leadership of women in decision-making and policymaking is necessary and will make a crucial contribution to progress across all the Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, particularly target 5.4, which recognizes and values unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate, Welcoming the convening of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development from 30 June to 3 July 2025 in Sevilla, Spain, and reaffirming its outcome document, the Sevilla Commitment, endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 79/323 of 25 August 2025, which sets forth a renewed global framework A/RES/80/152 Contribution of the care economy to sustainable development 25-20785 2/4 for financing for development, building on the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, 1 to close with urgency the estimated annual 4 trillion United States dollar financing gap, 2 and catalyse sustainable development investments at scale in developing countries and continue the reform of the international financial architecture through continued and strong commitment to multilateralism, international cooperation, and global solidarity, Reiterating the call in the Sevilla Commitment for increased investment in the care economy and the affirmation that gender equality and the empowering of all women and girls bring proven economic benefits, and recognizing that the feminization of poverty persists and that the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is an indispensable requirement for women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development, Welcoming the convening of the World Social Summit under the title “the Second World Summit for Social Development”, in Qatar from 4 to 6 November 2025, at which the Doha Political Declaration 3 was adopted, and reaffirming the commitment to consider the multiplier effects of care and support systems, Recalling the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action4 and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, 5 as well as the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002,6 and all the major United Nations conferences and summits and their follow-up in the development, economic, social, environmental, humanitarian and related fields, Recalling also its resolution 77/317 of 24 July 2023, in which it proclaimed 29 October as the International Day of Care and Support, and taking note of Economic and Social Council resolution 2024/4 of 5 June 2024 on promoting care and support systems for social development, International Labour Conference resolution V of 14 June 2024 concerning decent work and the care economy, World Health Assembly resolution 78.16 of 27 May 2025 on accelerating action on the global health and care workforce by 2030 and Human Rights Council resolution 54/6 of 11 October 2023,7 as well as relevant international human rights instruments and standards which contain provisions relevant to persons providing and receiving care and support, Acknowledging that care contributes to human, social, economic and environmental well-being, and sustainable development, and that care work, paid and unpaid, which is disproportionately carried out by women, is essential to all other work, Recognizing that the care economy comprises care work, both paid and unpaid, and direct and indirect care, its provision within and outside the household, as well as the people who provide and receive care and the employers and institutions that offer care, _______________ 1 General Assembly resolution 69/313, annex. 2 Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024 (United Nations publication, 2024), figure I.1. 3 Resolution 80/5, annex. 4 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. 5 Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. 6 See Report of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, 8–12 April 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.IV.4), chap. I, resolution 1. 7 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-eighth Session, Supplement No. 53A (A/78/53/Add.1), chap. III, sect. A. Contribution of the care economy to sustainable development A/RES/80/152 3/4 25-20785 Acknowledging that care work spans diverse occupations and sectors, both formal and informal, such as, inter alia, the activities of workers in education, early childhood care and education, care for older persons and the health and social sectors, and of individuals who perform unpaid care work, and that care work consists of, among others, activities and relations that pursue sustainability and quality of life, nurture human capabilities, foster agency, autonomy and dignity, develop the opportunities and resilience of those who provide and receive care, address the diverse needs of individuals across different life stages, and meet the physical, psychological, cognitive, mental health and developmental needs for care and support of people, including children, adolescents, youth, adults, older persons, persons with disabilities and all caregivers, while further acknowledging that there is currently no internationally agreed statistical definition of care work, Recognizing that the care economy contributes substantially to national income, employment creation, human capabilities and productivity, and noting that unpaid care and domestic work is estimated to be between 10 and 39 per cent of gross domestic product, if valued at the hourly minimum wage, and can surpass that of manufacturing, commerce, transportation and other key productive sectors, underscoring its macroeconomic relevance, Recognizing also that investing in the care economy yields substantial macroeconomic and social returns, and that such investments, according to International Labour Organization estimates, could generate nearly 300 million jobs globally by 2035, raise global employment rates by more than six percentage points and reduce the gender employment gap by around seven percentage points, and that every United States dollar invested in closing childcare gaps could yield an average increase of 3.76 dollars in gross domestic product by 2035, while acknowledging that these estimates may vary across national contexts and policy designs, Noting with concern that women and girls, including adolescent girls and older women, and especially women and girls living in poverty, undertake a disproportionate share of unpaid care work, which exacerbates gender inequality by limiting women’s agency to decide how to spend their time and their ability to participate in the labour market and decision-making processes, that it poses significant constraints on women’s and girls’ education and training, and that this kind of entrenched inequality and social exclusion is an obstacle to broad-based and sustained growth, Noting that women often make up a large portion of the paid care workforce, including in informal employment, self-employment and part-time or temporary work and as migrant workers, while continuing to bear most of the responsibility for unpaid care and support work and having fewer continuous paid work years than men, which limits their ability to accumulate lifetime savings and benefit from pension and social security schemes, and noting also that these inequalities contribute to the feminization of poverty and that comprehensive care and support systems, which include legal and policy frameworks, services, financing, social and physical infrastructure, programmes, human capital development, standards and training, governance and administration, are key to reducing women’s economic vulnerability and preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty, and that mechanisms to build social protection that value and account for periods of unpaid work over their life course can help to address this situation, Acknowledging the need to adopt measures to recognize unpaid and paid care work and reduce, redistribute and value unpaid care work by promoting the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, within the household and by prioritizing, inter alia, sustainable infrastructure, social protection policies and accessible, affordable and quality care and support services, adequate paid maternity, A/RES/80/152 Contribution of the care economy to sustainable development 25-20785 4/4 paternity and parental leave, as well as protection from discrimination on the grounds of maternity in the labour market, and targeted adequate working arrangements, Recognizing that the design and implementation of care and support systems must take into account existing economic, social and institutional capacities, that many developing countries face limited fiscal space, infrastructure deficits and high levels of informality, and that international cooperation, official development assistance, debt relief and concessional financing are important to support investments in care infrastructure and services, 1. Invites Member States, taking into account national circumstances, plans and priorities, to consider: (a) Integrating the value of the care economy, particularly unpaid care work, into national policies and planning, including, inter alia, national account systems, budgeting processes, fiscal and monetary policy, national statistics and development plans; (b) Adopting comprehensive and intergenerational approaches in the design and implementation of care and support systems, taking the care economy into account in economic and social policymaking; (c) Collecting quantitative and qualitative disaggregated data and statistics on care work, including through time-use and labour-force surveys, to better measure the full extent of paid and unpaid care work and to inform evidence-based policymaking; 2. Encourages Member States, in accordance with their national priorities and capacities, to increase investment in the care economy, including by promoting strategic investments in care infrastructure and services that can support the creation of decent work, enable greater female labour-force participation and improve well- being and human development outcomes; 3. Invites the relevant entities of the United Nations development system, as appropriate and within their existing mandates and resources, to support programme countries’ efforts, upon request and in line with national priorities, needs and plans, to develop, strengthen and expand care and support systems and related efforts in the care economy, including through the provision of technical assistance, capacity- building and policy advice; 4. Calls upon the international community, including, inter alia, development partners, international financial institutions, multilateral and public development banks and the private sector, to consider how to support national efforts to invest in and strengthen care and support systems, including through official development assistance, concessional finance, technical assistance, capacity-building, technology transfer on mutually agreed terms and knowledge-sharing; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eighty-second session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eighty-second session, under the item entitled “Eradication of poverty and other development issues”, a sub-item entitled “Contribution of the care economy to sustainable development”. 64th plenary meeting 15 December 2025

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