Trenzando Cuidados: knowledge for transformative public policies in the caregiving field

Partnership
Initiative

Background

The Oxfam Intermón Foundation (Spain) has extensive experience with advocacy in forums for dialogue on caregiving (care roundtables) in Europe. They have supported women's rights organisations in establishing and consolidating care roundtables in several LAC countries (through Oxfam Colombia, Oxfam Bolivia, Oxfam Cuba and Oxfam LAC, among others), and they have also promoted tools for monitoring care-related public policies. The organisation has promoted research, discussions and surveys on inequalities in the field of care, fostering spaces for reflection and connecting with other experiences in care policies in the region.

The Barcelona City Council (Spain) has a long trajectory of fostering public policies on the universal access to care, as well as cutting-edge practical experience at the local level.

The Fundación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo de la Salud y la Seguridad Social - Foundation for Health and Social Security Research and Development (Colombia) an entity represented by the Mesa de Economía Feminista - Feminist Economy Roundtable - MEF, has a solid track record of promoting tools that aim to facilitate spaces for advocacy, including a comprehensive care system as well as supporting the establishment of territorial roundtables and the Mesa Intersectorial del Cuidado (Intersectoral Roundtable on Care). Members of the MEF have participated in key processes in Colombia, such as the creation of Law 1413 on the Care Economy, and incorporating the topic of care into the National Development Plan.

The Latin American Council of Social Sciences - Latin American Social Sciences Council - CLACSO (Argentina), the Coordinadora de la Mujer (Women's Coordinating Committee) of Bolivia, the University of Havana (Cuba) through its Red Cubana de Estudios de Cuidados (Cuban Network of Care Studies - RCEC), and the Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán - Flora Tristán Centre for Peruvian Women - all have care networks or experiences with varying levels of implementation and participation. They all share the challenge of strengthening their capacities to advocate for transformative care policies (care systems / laws) based on dialogue with civil society.

Equidad (Mexico) and the Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir - Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute (Mexico), both collaborating entities in the Initiative, are also strategic partners of Oxfam in Mexico; promoting essential networks to raise awareness among the public and foster political debate around the country regarding care (Coalición por el Derecho al Cuidado y la Plataforma por el trabajo digno y tiempo propio de las mujeres - Coalition for the Right to Care and the Platform for Decent Work). Through their advocacy work with governments and legislatures, both entities are putting forward proposals for a bill to establish a National Care System.

In addition, through their experience of working with different groups of caregivers, academia, etc., they are helping to strengthen the capacities of the women's movement to engage citizens. They have also pushed for pilot projects at various levels to support and strengthen the capacities of local public authorities in the implementation of care initiatives. This type of experience is of great value for the Partnership entities that aim to respond to the challenge of coordinating policies and tangible proposals to redistribute and bring awareness to care in their respective contexts.

Thanks to previous experiences of working with each of the Partnership member entities and with the collaborating entities, Oxfam has identified an opportunity to bring these organisations together so that, through complementary approaches, they can contribute valuable experiences and generate collective knowledge to continue the work in advocacy and monitoring roadmaps for public policies focused on care.

Entities and roles

Beneficiary entities

Coordinadora de la Mujer

Bolivia

Universidad de la Habana

Cuba

Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristán

Peru

Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales

Argentina

First provider entities

Fundación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo de la Salud y la Seguridad Social

Colombia

Second provider entities

Fundación Oxfam Intermon

Spain

Ajuntament de Barcelona

Spain

Collaborating entities

Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir, Mexico

Equidad de Género, Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia, A.C, Mexico

Development challenges

This Triangular Cooperation Initiative responds to the goal of adopting tactics and building capacities to coordinate advocacy strategies and proposals for transformative care policies, together with civil society, benefiting from the favourable contexts of the Beneficiary entities' countries. By focusing on dialogue and joint reflection, the Provider entities will lend their knowledge and expertise of advocacy and coordination in care roundtables in similar contexts, which has allowed progress to be made towards public policies on care.

By systematising the development of Latin American public care policies, the Initiative also aims to create proposals that will contribute to new policies that incorporate a transformative perspective of care in other contexts in Latin America and Europe.

This process will be reflected in a model that will be developed with the purpose of transferring the lessons learned and challenges identified to other territories, where transformative care experiences are to be pursued.

This Triangular Cooperation Initiative aims to share the knowledge, experiences and lessons learned of the Partnership entities in order to jointly develop solutions for the establishment and consolidation of care roundtables, in addition to advocacy strategies for transformative public policies with a participatory, gender-based and locally-driven approach

Triangular approach

Civil society's capacity for advocacy and oversight of social policies is key to ensuring that the design and implementation of new policies incorporate a transformative approach, with the rights of all groups and social and environmental sustainability at the centre. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to rethink the role and responsibility of the central government, establishing opportunities for the implementation of new policies that are adapted to the current context.

The Initiative is committed to maximising the knowledge and experience of the leading European and Latin American organisations in public care policies, strengthening capacities to effectively shape and oversee the design of public policies that seek to promote the universal right to care.

The focus on the joint construction of solutions based on a highly collaborative process is also mutually beneficial for all entities, thanks to the opportunity to connect with actors who are promoting transformative care policies in their contexts; jointly identifying challenges, lessons learned and opportunities to move the agenda forward in the region.

Sectoral approach - Contribution to the 2030 Agenda

Primary SDG

Goal 5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

Secondary SDG

Goal 1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

ADELANTE SDG

Goal 10.4 Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality

Goal 17.9 Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation

Territorial approach

Intervention methodology

For decades, social policy in LAC has been based on a social welfare structure, which has provided support and assigned care services to households and women in particular. This Initiative aims to generate knowledge that will enable the Partnership entities to effectively shape and oversee public policy design processes working to ensure the universal right to care from a gender-transformative, participatory and locally-driven perspective.

To this end, the work plan is planned around a sequence of three face-to-face activities that will progressively assess the need for support in the Partnership, strengthen the capacities of the Beneficiary entities, and connect them with the experiences of the Provider entities and collaborating entities, thus contributing to the construction of the 'Trenzando Cuidados' network and the Beneficiary entities' goals of awareness and knowledge generation.

The first activity will take place as a seminar in Cali, Colombia, focusing on detecting needs, sharing experiences on public care policies based on the experience of the territorial roundtables, an assessment of the context, mapping of supply and demand, and a roadmap for action.

The second activity will be carried out through a seminar in Lima, Peru, which will focus on the role of civil society in the design of public care policies. This seminar will provide a space for the exchange of experiences and lessons learned from civil society in the different countries, as well as the transfer of tools for the evaluation of care policies.

External technical support will be provided across the board through a consultancy that will support the Partnership by systematising the emblematic experiences of care roundtables or similar participatory processes, as well as local and community experiences that are transformative and can be scaled up; thus generating knowledge that aims to respond to the learning needs of the Beneficiaries and which can be useful for civil society organisations in promoting similar processes in other territories.

The knowledge generation process will culminate in a study visit to Spain and Belgium, where exchanges will be facilitated with the domestic and care workers' movements that Oxfam has supported in recent years, as well as with academic, social and public institutions with a proven track record in the care sector. In addition, the visit will coincide with the Feminist Economics Congress in Barcelona, jointly organised by the Barcelona City Council.

This methodology will enable the Partnership entities to equip themselves with tools, tactics and policy proposals to advance their own advocacy roadmaps, whether at the national or local level, in order to move towards transformative care policies in their respective contexts. In addition, the exchange with local care experiences and pilot initiatives will help support its policy proposal with a multi-tiered approach, with the objective of making care available to all.

Direct beneficiaries (individuals)

According to Rule 9 of the Guidelines for Applicants: all persons participating in the activities of the Initiative.

The Initiative has more than 60 direct beneficiaries who are primarily members of the Partnership entities working on the public policy agenda for care, whether through advocacy, knowledge creation, citizen engagement or awareness-raising. In addition, all organisations interested in promoting the care agenda will benefit from the activities that are open to the public.

Budget

EU contribution: 139,148.44 €

Co-financing - Triangular Cooperation Partnership: 58,117.57 €

Total budget: 197,266.01 €

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