ILO assessment highlights potential of care cooperatives to advance decent work and gender equality in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction and the National Agency for Social Protection (NASP), convened an online workshop on 3 November 2026 to review and validate the findings and recommendations of the National assessment on provision of care services through cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy entities in Uzbekistan.

The assessment was conducted under the UN Joint Programme “Accelerating Decent Jobs and Social Protection for a Just Transition to Formality in Uzbekistan”, led by the ILO in partnership with UNDP, UNICEF and UN Women. It examines how cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy (SSE) entities can help expand community-based care services, create decent work opportunities and support the formalization of care work.

The assessment highlights growing demand for care services alongside persistent gaps in their coverage, quality and accessibility. Uzbekistan is undergoing significant demographic and social transformations. The demand for childcare, eldercare and disability-related support is expected to increase considerably in the coming decades. According to UNFPA projections, the number of people aged 65 and over is expected to increase from nearly 2.4 million in 2026 to 6.1 million by 2050. More than one million persons with disabilities were registered in 2026, including around 80,000 people identified as having severe care dependency, according to Social Policy Lab and NASP.

According to ILO estimates, 708 million women worldwide were not in the labour force in 2023 due to unpaid care responsibilities, highlighting a major barrier to women's economic participation. At the same time, many paid care workers remain in informal employment or work under civil-law contracts that do not provide access to paid leave or sick pay. Gaps in professional training, certification and occupational safety and health further affect the quality of care services and working conditions.

The assessment examines how cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy entities could complement Uzbekistan's ongoing reforms in social protection and care provision. It identifies the need for an enabling legal and institutional environment, adequate financing, professional care standards and effective labour protection.

The assessment puts forward recommendations across three interconnected areas: legal and policy development, professionalization of care services and financial sustainability. These include reviewing the legal framework for cooperatives and other SSE entities; developing a gender-responsive classification of care services and an occupational safety and health framework; and strengthening quality assurance and monitoring, as well as improving access to labour protection and social insurance for care workers.

The assessment applies the ILO’s 5R Framework for Decent Care Work: recognizing, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work, and rewarding and representing paid care workers. It is informed by the 2024 ILO Resolution concerning decent work and the care economy, which recognizes shared responsibility for care while affirming the State’s primary responsibility for care provision, funding and regulation. It also draws on the 2022 ILO Resolution concerning decent work and the social and solidarity economy and the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193). Uzbekistan ratified the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), in 2024, providing a further basis for promoting policies that support workers with family responsibilities.

The workshop brought together representatives of NASP, the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction, the Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan and other stakeholders to discuss the assessment findings, examine the feasibility of the recommendations and identify priorities and potential lead actors for further action. Feedback from the validation process will inform the finalization of the assessment and its recommendations.

The UN Global Accelerator joint programme is supported by the Joint SDG Fund. We sincerely appreciate the contributions from the European Union and the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland in accelerating progress towards the SDGs.

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