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

Introduction

This initiative was a Triangular Cooperation effort, developed with the support of the ADELANTE Window, aimed at strengthening the capacities of the women's movement to engage citizens, on the basis of an agenda that highlights the importance of care and makes it visible in Latin America and Europe. 

Learning expertise in transformative public policies in the caregiving field

The Partnership focused on dialogue and joint reflection, and the Provider entities lended 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, meeting the needs identified for the beneficiary entities.

• Providers entities:
  • Oxfam Intermón Foundation (Spain)
  • Barcelona City Council in Spain 
  • Foundation for Health and Social Security Research and Development, in Colombia, an entity represented by the Feminist Economy Roundtable - MEF
• Beneficiary entities
  • Latin American Council of Social Sciences - CLACSO (Argentina)
  • Women's Coordinating Committee (Bolivia) 
  • University of Havana (Cuba), through its Cuban Network of Care Studies - RCEC. 
  • Flora Tristán Centre (Peru)

The Beneficiaries entities shared the need of strengthening their capacities to advocate for transformative care policies (care systems / laws) based on dialogue with civil society. Thus they demanded knowledge to respond 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 systematising the development of Latin American public care policies, the Initiative also aimed 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 has been reflected in a model that has been developed with the purpose of transferring the lessons learned and challenges identified to other territories, where transformative care experiences are to be pursued.

Objectives

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

Project activities

This Initiative was structured around three key activities in which a needs assessment was carried out within the Partnership, as well as capacity building among the Beneficiary entities to connect them with the experiences of the Provider entities and collaborating entities. In this regard, they were able to build up the network 'Trenzando Cuidados' and to address the demand for advocacy as well as the knowledge required by the beneficiary organisations to continue demanding quality public policies to make visible and protect those who require care and care for.

Key activities included:

• Capacity building: training for representatives from Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and Cuba included the exchange of experiences and lessons on:
  • Strategic civil society action for strengthening public policy demands around the right to care.
  • Public care policies based on territorial committee experience and participatory processes.
  • Tools for evaluating care policies in Latin America and Europe.
• Model implementation: development of a systematised document outlining key care committee experiences and participatory processes, including local and community-led transformative experiences that could be scaled. This knowledge supported the needs of Beneficiary entities and may also benefit civil society organisations in other territories.
• Policy development: the initiative conducted a needs assessment and shared public care policy experiences from territorial committees. Activities included context analysis, supply and demand mapping, and a roadmap for action. The study visit to Brussels and Spain enabled meetings with European institutional authorities regarding the European Care Strategy.
• Community engagement: the role of civil society in designing public care policies was central. The initiative fostered experience-sharing among countries and transferred tools for care policy evaluation.

Cross-cutting themes

Throughout the Initiative, a cross-cutting approach to gender, environment and climate change was applied, both by highlighting and sharing specific experiences on these issues and by integrating them in the joint work sessions, and in the final model.

Results

Through this Triangular Cooperation Initiative, the knowledge and expertise of the Partnership's member entities and the collaborating entities in the field of caregiving was used to design a model with strategies to influence transformative public policies with a participatory, gender-based and territorially-specific approach. This model was composed by two documents, on one hand a ‘Comparative analysis of the trajectories of care roundtables, platforms and networks in Latin America’, with an in-depth analysis of civil society organisations involved in care policy advocacy. On the other hand, a ‘Critical study of eight community care experiences in Latin America and Spain’ with transformative potential to contribute to the design, formulation and implementation of comprehensive public care policies, from a feminist and intercultural approach.

This methodology enabled the Partnership entities to equip themselves with the tools, strategies and policy proposals to advance their own advocacy roadmaps at both the national and local levels, in order to move towards transformative care policies in their respective contexts. In addition, the exchange with local care-related experiences and pilot initiatives helped nurture the policy proposal with a multi-tiered approach, with the aim of promoting care at the local level.

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The results of this Initiative have contributed and aligned with the SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’, particularly the following targets

• Target 5.4 ‘Recognise 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’.

Fostering the formation of multi-stakeholder networks with shared guidelines facilitates the application of knowledge faster and delivers the necessary quality assurance for future interventions and increasing the impact of care interventions in Latin America and Europe.

Implementing partner

Oxfam Intermón Foundation (Spain)