Authors

Maigul Nugmanova¹; Mieke Meurs²;  ¹ Narxoz University, Gender Economics Research Center, Kazakhstan;  ² American University, Washington DC, United States

Discussion

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed global challenges in the care sector, highlighting the urgent need to address these issues due to their significant impact on economic indicators such as income, employment, and overall economic growth. This paper examines the childcare system in Uzbekistan, a Central Asian nation with a high birth rate and an aging population, both of which increase the demand for care services and strain the country’s underdeveloped care sector. Over the past decade, Uzbekistan has implemented extensive reforms aimed at reducing poverty, tackling unemployment, and enhancing social protection and childcare services. Country’s childcare system includes institutional care provided by both public and private organizations, as well as paid and unpaid care in/outside households. The country has made notable progress in expanding access to preschool education and improving childcare leave policies. Key developments include the introduction of two years of paid parental leave, state-funded maternity benefits, exemptions for private employers from bearing these costs, two-year workplace breastfeeding breaks, and free, mandatory preschool education starting at age six. We analyze data collected through in-depth interviews with experts and the population across various regions to obtain missing data and identify gaps in the country's care economy that hinder the favorable redistribution of unpaid work in household and the provision of decent employment for caregivers. Moving forward, the focus should shift toward improving the quality of institutional care, particularly among non-public providers, and expanding services for children under three. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure access of all women to maternity and childcare benefits for up to two years, introduce non-transferable paternity leave, support, train and formalize paid home caregiver’s employment, and other steps to promote the redistribution of unpaid domestic work and decent employment conditions for caregivers. The study provides recommendations for enhancing the childcare system, which can be integrated into broader strategies on employment, labor formalization, and the economic empowerment of women.