UN Women, Root Impact partner to promote male caregiving roles

U.N. Women announced Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Root Impact, a Seoul-based nonprofit organization, to collaborate on strengthening men’s caregiving capacities.

Under the agreement, the two organizations will work together throughout 2025 and 2026 on a range of initiatives aimed at building care-friendly workplaces. A key focus will be bolstering caregiving capacity development programs for parents, especially fathers.

According to U.N. Women’s Seoul-based Knowledge and Partnerships Centre, they will also support pilot projects that promote care-friendly work environments. This includes conducting joint research, engaging in advocacy for policy improvements and sharing promising practices and experiences with countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

As an initial step, beginning this July, the two organizations will launch the “Caring Fathers, Caring Workplaces” project. The initiative will feature expert-led workshops for fathers as well as support for organizations aiming to expand a culture of care.

“Through our partnership with Root Impact, we hope to strengthen fathers’ caregiving capacities and develop effective policies to build care-friendly organizations,” said Maria Holtsberg, deputy regional director of U.N. Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, who signed the MOU.

She added, “We hope that this collaboration in the Republic of Korea will serve as a catalyst for advancing a sustainable care society across the Asia-Pacific region.”

“Through this partnership, we expect to generate new momentum by connecting Korea’s social innovation ecosystem with U.N. Women’s global gender equality agenda,” said Heo Jae-hyong, CEO of Root Impact.

In Korea, male participation in caregiving remains relatively low. According to government data, while the number of male parental leave recipients exceeded 40,000 for the first time as of February this year, men still accounted for only 30 percent of all recipients — far fewer than the 90,706 female recipients.

Root Impact is a nonprofit organization established in 2012 that discovers and supports changemakers tackling social and environmental challenges through innovative solutions.