Lost labour effort, energy, leisure time, opportunities and other resources with no reward should be one of the most addressed aspects of sustainable development policies, especially in low-income nations. Even though care giving translates into wellbeing of families, individuals and the society, its promotion of inequality, unequal opportunities, unequal access to public service and public infrastructure and the non-materialisation of 10%-39% of Gross Domestic Product, the influencers of unpaid care and domestic work cannot be overlooked.  

Notwithstanding this, social, economic and gender responsive budgeting policies have abandoned the recognition and the mitigation of influencers of unpaid care and domestic work for better implementation of the sustainable development solutions. In the 1960s, a feminist economist, strived to include domestic labour as part of the key disciplines in economics by analysing unpaid care and domestic work as equal paid work where it would not be characterised as “women’s job” but as “real work” (Mincer, 1962; Becker, 1965; Benston, 1969; Dalla Costa and James, 1975; Harrison, 1973; Gardiner et al., 1975).

It is also significant noting that, sidelining of women in both the formal and informal sector of the workforce is strengthened by socio-economic activities placed in a family or societal setting to perform unpaid care and domestic work in the household in the arrangement of giving care, getting energy like firewood, cleaning, fetching water and food, cooking, caring for the aged and caring for those with disabilities [Ahmed & Floro (2023), Hertog et al., 2023, Dugarova, (2020), Hess et al., (2020), Charmes (2019), Sarrasanti et al., (2020), Bulog et al., (2022), Finch & Groves (2022)]. In furtherance of this, the weight of unpaid care and domestic work is encouraged by the lack of, or inadequate availability of food security, water, energy, basic health care and education (Hirway, 2015). 

Addati et al., (2018), found that, in the world, on a par, women spend 265 minutes in day to perform unpaid care and domestic work whilst men spend 83 minutes performing the same tasks. Hence, women spend more than three times the amount of time in proportion to perform unpaid care and domestic work as compared to men. This inequality scale becomes wider in low-income economies. In Ghana, Owoo (2022) and his research team found that, “Women spend almost 500 minutes, 333 minutes and 129 minutes in a typical working day on domestic work, secondary childcare and primary childcare, respectively; compared to male partners’ 196 minutes, 148 minutes and 102 minutes, respectively”. It is therefore paramount that, the influences of gender segregation and inequality of unpaid care and domestic work need to be recognised and curbed with social and fiscal policies. Dong & An (2015) stated that,  “Unpaid domestic duties reflects a set of social norms and perceptions regarding a ‘natura’ household division of labour and the macroeconomic policies and strategies that do not acknowledge the existence of unpaid care and domestic work, rather intensify the increase of the burden in the economy this is because, it creates linkages for inefficiencies, linkages in income, linkages work like balance, linkages in the output of Gross domestic products, linkages in the efficient implementation of sustainable development goals.” 

Accordingly, to be able to comprehend unpaid care and domestic work in a low-income economy like Ghana, it is of important to recognise and analyse the influencers of the dynamism and complexities of unpaid care and domestic work in Ghana. The aim of this research is to recognise, analyse and address the influencers of unpaid care and domestic work within the Ghanaian context in a video experiment. 

The objective is to observe the underlining influencers of unpaid care and domestic work in real time with and without enabling factors such as societal norms, gender, educational background, religion and religious activities, work type and condition, economic status, age, marital status, family type, consumption materials such as radio, television, signages, online content, academic discourse community discipline content and activities, tribe, culture and tradition, income, types of unpaid care, types of domestic work, allocation to time, leisure, work life balance, role of guardians, gender of guardians, time and resource allocations and a range of care and unpaid activities.