Where next for feminist foreign policy on a transformative care agenda?

Care is widely recognised to be under severe strain. Widespread precarity and conflict, and the accelerating climate crisis, plus widespread conflict  are multiplying unpaid care workloads mostly shouldered by women.

Millions of children, rapidly growing numbers of older people and people with disabilities lack access to the care and support they need. And the paid care workforce often faces precarious working conditions, including low pay and vulnerability to abuse.

The importance of addressing the care crisis is increasingly recognised in multilateral declarations, by the UN system and the feminist foreign policy community. Though at first glance, care appears largely a domestic policy agenda, it is profoundly affected by international policy decisions.

This briefing paper highlights the potential of feminist foreign policies and international gender equality policies in advancing a transformative care agenda – one which tackles the root causes of the care crisis and puts it at the centre of development and social policies. Because of their explicitly holistic ambitions, these policies have great potential to drive such an agenda.

Some key areas of action include:

• multi- and bi-lateral action to tackle the precarity, climate crisis and conflict
• mobilising finance for comprehensive care systems
• strengthening the rights and protection of migrant care workers
• boosting international cooperation on care issues.