Unpaid care work is a major contributing factor to gender inequality and women's poverty. The amount and intensity of unpaid care work in Southern Africa has been exacerbated by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Mainland Southern Africa is said to be the most affected region in the world. Southern Africa has less than 5% of the world's population and yet has the highest rates of HIV and AIDS infection. The worst affected countries include Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The guidebook is intended to assist in advocacy activities aimed at influencing economic policy makers to acknowledge and account for women's contribution in national and global economies through statistics, national accounts, budgets, and taxation. The purpose of the guidebook and subsequent activities is to make unpaid work visible and to make it accounted for in macro- and micro-level policy making. This will enable policy makers to formulate and implement gender-sensitive policies that will counter the feminization of poverty.