The Care Policy Scorecard: a new tool to shift progress towards a caring economy

Abstract

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has highlighted the centrality of care and women’s labour (paid and unpaid). While there is a growing body of literature on specific policy measures to address care work in different contexts, there is no global practical tool to track progress against key policy areas. This article introduces the Care Policy Scorecard, an evidence-based policy tool developed through extensive collaboration between several institutions, care policy advocates, policymakers, and researchers in the global South and North. The Scorecard helps care advocates to assess how care-related policies are adopted, budgeted for, and implemented by governments, and to what extent they can transform the social organisation of care. The paper also includes preliminary results from the application of this tool in Kenya, and shares learnings from the use of the findings for national-level care policy advocacy.