CPD Policy Brief 2020 (4)
Estimating Unpaid Work in Bangladesh’s GDP
A Conceptual Framework for Household Satellite Accounts Approach
Women in Bangladesh are involved in many unpaid domestic economic activities such as household chores, care and agriculture work, which create significant value and social capital. Non-recognition of these contributions has often been identified as a key factor that attenuates their social status relative to men. Conventional measures such as GDP primarily consider goods and services produced for markets to have economic value; and thus women’s unpaid works remain unaccounted for in the national statistics. This methodological shortcoming not only results in underestimation of the national GDP, but also transmits wrong signals to the policymakers at both national and international sphere. This policy brief outlines a guideline to overcome the conceptual, methodological and data challenges for accounting women’s unpaid work following the System of National Accounts through the household satellite accounts approach.
Author: Fahmida Khatun, Towfiqul Islam Khan and Kazi Golam Tashfique
Publication period: August 2020