Framing Care in Global and Regional Policy Spaces

In the wake of COVID-19, several high-profile initiatives emerged at the global and regional level promoting greater attention to and investments in the care economy. This article locates the seemingly sudden breakthrough of the care agenda on a longer trajectory of feminist institutional advocacy in international organizations, drawing attention to the role of care policy entrepreneurs and the networks of feminist expertise they have tapped into (or not) when framing care to “fit” the mandates of their respective organizations. It argues that greater access by feminist academics to the knowledge production processes of international organizations and stronger relationships with supportive policy entrepreneurs on the inside has led some organizations to adopt more expansive notions of care. Differences in institutional and relational resources, in turn, are shaping the strategies of policy entrepreneurs within each organization for translating new ideas about care into policy action and influence.