IDA20 offers an important opportunity to tackle the rising gender inequality tied to the unequal distribution of unpaid care work between women, girls, and men. IDA is a crucial source of concessional finance that lower-income countries depend on and is one of the biggest providers of core support for human development and public services.

Against a backdrop of fiscal consolidation and contraction in the wake of COVID-19, it is imperative for IDA20 to do its part in tackling the gendered impacts of COVID-19. Care—which has previously been neglected in IDA strategies—must be integrated into the IDA20 policy commitments. Investments in a package of care of measures (e.g., investments in care-supporting physical infrastructure, care services, care-supporting social protection, gender-responsive budgeting, and data collection) are critical to reduce the heavy, unequal, and gendered responsibility of unpaid and underpaid care work.