About the Ontario Care Policy Scorecard Project
ONN has been awarded a three-year grant from the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) for its care policy scorecard project. The project entails:
- Adapting Oxfam Canada’s care economy scorecard to the Ontario context.
- Assessing Ontario’s care economy using the adapted scorecard.
- Mobilizing the results of the Ontario care economy scorecard.
- Identifying efforts to seed, support, and grow to advance a care policy framework.
What is a care policy scorecard?
The Care Policy Scorecard was launched by Oxfam in September 2021. It provides care advocates with a practical tool to measure and track government progress and commitments on policies that have a direct impact on unpaid and paid care, and provides policy makers with evidence and information to make informed decisions on these policies.
The scorecard draws on the work of feminist and development economists and the International Labour Organization’s 5R Framework to outline the key components of a care-enabling public policy environment. It includes a set of policy indicators and questions to assess progress systematically and holistically across relevant public policy areas for unpaid and paid care work. Oxfam Canada adapted the tool at the federal level but cited its limitations given most care policies are in the provincial and territorial jurisdiction. Other adaptation examples to date include: US and The Philippines.
What does the scorecard measure?
The Scorecard consists of three sections with related policy areas:
- Unpaid care work: Policy areas related to unpaid care work, the policy measures they entail, how they address inequalities in heavy and unequal unpaid care work, and what makes them transformative.
- Paid care work: Policy areas related to paid care, the policy measures they entail, how they address vulnerable and/or unsafe working conditions and/or environments and discriminate against women and migrant care workers, and what makes them transformative.
- Cross-sectoral policy areas: Key cross-sectoral policy areas related to both unpaid and paid care work, the policy measures they entail, how they address inequalities, and what makes them transformative.
Each policy area includes sets of indicators alongside an assessment criteria to develop an overall score for each indicator. At the end of each policy area, there is a scoring matrix provided to indicate the degree to which the policies are transformative.
Opportunities for engagement
As much as this project is about building a scorecard, its also about coordinating, connecting, and strengthening efforts to advance care policy in Ontario. Connect with ONN at any point to learn more about the work and offer feedback.
Other ways to engage include:
- In 2025
- Participate in scorecard adaptation
- Participate in assessment validation sessions.
- In 2026:
- Participate in amplifying the completed scorecard when launched.
- Attend the care policy summit.
Additional resources
- Care Economies in Context, Centre for Global Social Policy
- Canada’s Care Economy: A Conceptual Framework
- International Labour Organization and the Care Economy
