From unpaid to paid care work: the macroeconomic implications of HIV and AIDS on women's time-tax burdens

This paper considers public employment guarantee programs in the context of South Africa as a means to address the nexus of poverty, unemployment, and unpaid work burdensall factors exacerbated by HIV/AIDS. It further discusses the need for genderinformed public job creation in areas that mitigate the time-tax" burdens of women, and examines a South African initiative to address social sector service delivery deficits within the government's Expanded Public Works Programme. The authors highlight the need for well-designed employment guarantee programsspecifically, programs centered on community and home-based careas a potential way to help offset the destabilizing effects of HIV/AIDS and endemic poverty. The paper concludes with results from macroeconomic simulations of such a program, using a social accounting matrix framework, and sets out implications for both participants and policymakers.