“Universal childcare access does not mean government has to do everything or that it has to be free of cost, it has to be affordable for parents and the most vulnerable of parents e.g., a single mother who is receiving public assistance."

Six months on, since the Category 5 hurricane battered the small island nation, UN Women assessment shows what women want is assistance to get back on their feet and back to work, not handouts.

UN Women MCO-Caribbean is supporting the Ministry of Social Transformation and Human Resource Development in Antigua and Barbuda, with the development of a database of beneficiaries for the country's main cash transfer programme for households living in poverty - the "Board of Guardians" programme.

As part of continued advocacy efforts around the recent launch of the UN Women flagship publication Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights”, UN Women Regional Advisor Economic Empowerment – Elizabeth Villagomez Morales presented a copy to the Antigua and Barbuda Minister of Social Transformation, the Honourable Samantha Marshall.

Under a joint UN programme, UN Women, UNICEF and the OECS Commission are supporting national budget directors and finance officers from the Eastern Caribbean in conducting the gender analysis to design and cost measures, the outcome of which are budgets that are child and gender responsive.

Marking the 2012 observance of International Human Rights Day, Caribbean domestic workers pressed for official recognition of domestic work as valid work alongside other categories of work. A milestone they hope to achieve by the time another international day wends around - International Women’s Day in March 2013 - if not sooner.