Today is International Women’s Day, a global date celebrating the achievements of women. This year’s theme is to "inspire inclusion"; yet one group of women is often missing from the IWD fanfare: unpaid carers from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds.

The very nature of caring means that carers themselves - the vast majority of whom are women - are rarely in the spotlight. Much of the vital, challenging work they do goes on quietly, behind closed doors, looking after sick, elderly or disabled relatives or friends.

Unpaid carers are often the sole lifeline for the person they look after, doing everything from brushing their teeth to their banking. On top of the gruelling day-to-day personal care tasks, much of caring is administrative: working out what support both you and the person you look after are entitled to, and then fighting to try and make sure you receive it.

Even unpaid carers who speak English can find navigating the bureaucratic labyrinth that goes hand in hand with caring a nightmare. Imagine how much more challenging it is for carers who don’t speak English and don’t have access to a computer: people who have no idea of what their rights and entitlements to support are, never mind how to access them.

At my organisation, the Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project, we see countless women who are incredibly isolated, struggling with the significant financial and personal pressures of caring.

The last official figures on the number of female carers from BME backgrounds in Scotland date back to 2001 and are likely unreliable anyway given that a significant proportion of unpaid carers often don’t realise that’s what they are. For many BME carers, looking after relatives is just what they do; it’s their duty, something that’s culturally expected. But it speaks volumes that nobody has even attempted counting the number of female BME carers for mire than two decades. They are overlooked, forgotten, or relegated to file on a dusty shelf labelled "hard to reach’" The everyday impact of this enforced invisibility is a severe lack of culturally appropriate accessible advice and support for BME women who are unpaid carers.

Part of the problem is that caring of all kinds, by carers of all types, is fundamentally undervalued. There is no better example of carers’ invisibility than in the Scottish Government’s overarching vision for the country, captured in 11 "National Outcomes" - the goals which the Government says describe "the kind of Scotland" it wishes to create.

Currently, care is almost completely absent: a glaring omission which A Scotland That Cares, a campaign backed by 70 organisations, including my own and Oxfam Scotland, aims to change when draft new National Outcomes come before Parliament imminently.

International Women’s Day should provide more than just a moment of reflection on the challenges and contributions of BME women who are unpaid carers. Instead, it should truly "inspire inclusion", by giving decision-makers the impetus to ensure that carers of all kinds are appropriately counted, consulted and cared for.

Margaret Chiwanza is Chief Executive of the Minority Ethnic Cares of People Project