Across East Asia and the Pacific, the rising demand for care – intensified by ageing populations and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – has placed a disproportionate burden on women and girls. Countries across the EAP region lack the comprehensive, rights-based care systems that could provide these outcomes. UNICEF’s Family-Friendly Policies (FFPs) initiative, in addition to initiatives by the ILO and UN Women have made the case for improved care policies, aimed at supporting working parents, ensuring that women can access the labour market, and ensuring improved development outcomes, including for children. There is thus a need to map and assess the current state of care policies, laws, and institutional mechanisms in the region, and identify strengths, gaps and opportunities to create evidence-based policy momentum towards change.

To address this gap, SPRI Global supported the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) in conducting a comprehensive regional review of policies, laws, and institutional mechanisms of care, including family-friendly policies. This review will cover 11 countries and provide a comprehensive analysis of the policy landscape, considering the extent to which the existing systems are systems of care, realising the rights of all stakeholders, are gender-responsive and -transformative, disability inclusive, relevant, effective, and sustainable. Specific objectives include:

1. To develop a conceptual framework and an index to measure/assess Policies, Laws and Institutional Mechanisms of Care, including FFPs.
2. To examine specific country challenges for care systems and the current state of Policies, Laws and Institutional Mechanisms of Care, including FFPs, in East Asia and the Pacific countries and the region, identifying where evidence gaps exist, as well as strengths and gaps at design and implementation levels.
3. To make recommendations on ways forward for developing and strengthening care and support systems, including FFPs, to promote the care agenda in the region and beyond.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the team combined desk research, policy reviews, and data analysis with expert interviews to unpack the political economy of care across multiple countries, including Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Viet Nam. This research aims to determine if current national efforts are rights-abiding, gender-responsive, and fiscally sustainable.

Key outputs include a Care Policy Index paper to assess policy maturity, individual country briefs, and a regional policy report analysing the current state of care mechanisms. Findings will inform policy advocacy briefs and strategic recommendations to strengthen the care agenda and promote gender-transformative social protection systems throughout the region.