Beyond Maternity Leave, Lessons on Care Work and Climate Resilience

Returning to work after maternity leave has been a transition that has reshaped my perspective on gender, climate and sustainable development. Reconnecting with colleagues and contributing once again to regional efforts that strengthen climate resilience across the Greater Horn of Africa brought a renewed sense of excitement.

Yet beneath that excitement lies the quiet mental checklist that accompanies every workday: Has the baby fed well? Will my milk supply keep up now that I am away for longer hours? Will the caregivers remember the infant first aid skills they were trained on if an emergency, such as choking, occurs? After months of measuring time in breastfeeding sessions, nappies, naps and developmental milestones, switching back to climate information, technical reports and policy discussions requires an adjustment familiar to many working mothers. These concerns become part of the invisible mental load that many women carry while striving to contribute fully to their professional roles.

This transition has also prompted a deeper reflection. Beyond my own experience is a broader question: what does caregiving teach us about gender equality, climate resilience and sustainable development?

As a Gender and Climate Expert at ICPAC, this experience has reinforced a reality that is not always visible in climate policy discussions: resilience begins long before communities respond to floods, droughts or heatwaves. It begins in homes, in workplaces and in the systems that support, or fail to support, those with caregiving responsibilities. The unpaid and often invisible responsibilities associated with caregiving continue to shape women’s participation in the workplace, influence access to opportunities and affect how women engage with climate adaptation and resilience efforts.

Care Work, Time Poverty and Climate Information

Across the Greater Horn of Africa, women play a central role in agriculture, livestock management, water collection, food security and household wellbeing. At the same time, they continue to bear a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work.

The demands of caring for children, preparing meals, fetching water and fuel, caring for elderly family members and managing households often leave little time for other activities; a phenomenon widely recognised as time poverty.

Climate change does not create these inequalities. It magnifies them. During droughts, women and girls in rural areas often spend more time fetching water or searching for pasture and fuelwood. Floods can disrupt access to schools, health services and childcare, increasing the time families spend caring for children, older persons and those who are unwell. As climate shocks become more frequent and intense, women are often left with even less time to access climate information, participate in community decision-making or adopt climate-smart practices.

Time poverty has significant implications for climate resilience. Climate information is only valuable if it reaches the people who need it in ways that enable them to act. Yet women often face barriers that limit both access to and use of climate information. Community meetings where seasonal forecasts are shared may coincide with caregiving responsibilities, while training sessions may be scheduled at times when women cannot leave young children at home. In addition, digital climate services may remain out of reach because of unequal access to mobile phones, internet connectivity or digital literacy. As a result, many of the women making day-to-day decisions related to farming, livestock, water management, food preparation and household nutrition may receive climate information later than men, or not at all.

My experience of motherhood has deepened my appreciation of just how scarce time can be. Every hour devoted to caregiving is an hour unavailable for attending training, participating in community decision-making, accessing weather information or adopting climate-smart practices. If balancing these responsibilities is challenging within a formal workplace, the realities are even more demanding for women whose livelihoods depend directly on climate-sensitive sectors. This experience underscores the importance of designing climate services that recognise women’s lived realities.

Motherhood Through a Sustainability Lens

Long before becoming a parent, disposable nappies represented an environmental concern. Seeing them scattered in open dumpsites or blocking drainage systems often reminded me of the growing challenge of solid waste management and environmental pollution.

Motherhood, however, transformed that concern from an environmental observation into a daily reality. Like many environmentally conscious parents, we began searching for more sustainable alternatives almost immediately. Already committed to sustainable living, our family explored reusable cloth nappies, an option my partner was particularly enthusiastic about, reasoning that if they served him well as a baby, they would surely do the same for ours.

On paper, reusable nappies made perfect environmental sense. In practice, however, the reality proved far more complex. Between breastfeeding, frequent nappy changes, sleepless nights and preparing to return to full-time work, keeping up with the constant washing and drying of reusable nappies quickly became difficult to sustain. We eventually turned to biodegradable nappies as a more practical alternative, but their higher cost often puts them beyond the reach of many families, for whom affordability is just as significant a barrier as availability. Sustainable choices should not become a luxury reserved for those who can afford them.

The experience revealed that sustainability extends beyond environmental considerations; it is equally a matter of gender equity. Climate resilience depends not only on environmentally sound solutions, but also on whether those solutions are affordable, accessible and practical for the people expected to adopt them. When environmentally friendly choices demand significantly more time, labour or financial resources from caregivers, particularly women already experiencing time poverty, they become difficult to sustain. Sustainable development must therefore balance environmental objectives with the social and economic realities that determine whether sustainable choices are both feasible and accessible.

Innovation in affordable biodegradable products, investments in circular economy solutions, improved waste management systems, extended producer responsibility and supportive public policies all have a role to play. Sustainable choices should be practical, affordable and accessible, rather than forcing parents to choose between caring for their families, protecting the environment and managing their household finances.

Building Resilience That Recognises Care

Climate resilience is often described as the ability of people, institutions and systems to anticipate, adapt and recover from shocks. The same principle applies within our workplaces and communities.

Gender-responsive climate information services are not only about producing accurate forecasts. They also require an understanding of who receives climate information, how it is communicated, when it is shared and whether the intended users are realistically able to act upon it. Delivering information through trusted community networks, women’s groups, local radio, health facilities and mobile platforms, while ensuring dissemination schedules are sensitive to caregiving responsibilities, can significantly improve equitable access.

Strengthening women’s access to climate information is fundamental to helping women, their families and their communities better prepare for and respond to climate risks.

Supporting employees returning from maternity leave is an investment in institutional resilience, gender equality and organisational effectiveness. Flexible work arrangements, supportive supervisors, adequate lactation facilities and workplace policies that recognise caregiving responsibilities enable women to continue contributing their expertise while navigating one of life’s most significant transitions. More broadly, resilience cannot be achieved if unpaid care work remains invisible. Whether discussing climate adaptation, early warning systems or sustainable development, recognising care responsibilities is essential for ensuring that women can access information, participate in decision-making and benefit from adaptation investments.

While my own experience has been shaped by the transition back to work, it has also made me think about the many women whose career breaks extend well beyond maternity leave, particularly those who step away from their careers to raise children. Returning after an extended absence often means rebuilding confidence, updating skills and adapting to changes in technologies, policies and ways of working. Supporting women through mentoring, refresher training, flexible work arrangements and inclusive recruitment is not simply about fairness; it also helps ensure that valuable skills and experience are not lost to the climate sector.

Ultimately, building climate resilience is about more than responding to hazards. It is about creating systems that recognise care, value women’s expertise and enable everyone to contribute fully to building more resilient communities.