Oxfam

Oxfam’s work on unpaid care aims to increase women and girls’ time and ability to participate in social, economic and political life by transforming how unpaid care work is valued, shared and invested in. We know that one of the key ways of achieving this change is through an enabling policy environment that recognizes the importance and value of care; reduces heavy and time-consuming unpaid care work through investments in public services and infrastructure; redistributes the responsibility for unpaid care more equally between men and women, and between households, government and business; and ensures those with care responsibilities are represented in budgets and policies that affect their lives. Yet – with the exception of a few countries – these policies are not widely understood or comprehensively implemented by governments around the world.

To start, the project teams will participate in the development of a care policy advocacy tool (a scorecard) that will be used to provide evidence-based guidance for governments on how to address unpaid care work and implement Sustainable Development Goal Target 5.4, while providing advocates (both outside and inside government) with an effective advocacy tool to promote this agenda. In particular, it aims to provide women’s rights organizations (WROs), civil society organizations (CSOs) and international NGOs (INGOs) with a means to assess and monitor governments’ commitments and progress in addressing unpaid care work through the formulation, financing and implementation of care-supporting public policies.

Given the limited level of awareness on unpaid care work outside of CSO circles, and that governments are driven by what populations think, citizen awareness is very important. Linked to this, the scorecard will help to communicate to non-expert audiences what a care-supporting policy environment looks like. CSOs and WROs collecting data will encourage governments to engage with the topic. Ultimately, the development, promotion and uptake of the scorecard is intended to lead to more governments adopting policies that address women and girls’ heavy and unequal share of unpaid care work, so they are better able to take advantage of economic, social and political opportunities. The scorecard also has the potential to build peer pressure by providing data on what is happening elsewhere in other countries, nudging governments to measure themselves through comparison.

• How can a care policy advocacy tool (a scorecard) be used to assess and monitor governments’ commitments and progress to addressing unpaid care work through the formulation, financing and implementation of care-supporting public policies?

• How can the US and other participating countries influencing activities be best connected for maximum impact?

• Can the scorecard framework be adapted to national contexts (such as in the US, incorporating also underpaid care, may be required)?

• M. Rosario Castro Bernardinin, PhD, Researcher, Livelihoods and Rights, Oxfam

• Mansi Anand, Women's Economic Empowerment Senior Technical Advisor, Oxfam

• Melissa Paulsen, Associate Director of Education and Training Programs in the Pulte Institute for Global Development and concurrent Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Keough School, Notre Dame