Knowledge Products

The Care Economy: Where gender-smart and climate-smart investment meet – This think piece focuses on deep-dive research into seven businesses that are operating at the care-climate-gender nexus. We share findings on achievements and challenges, and recommendations for impact investors who are interested in the “triple win” of reducing women’s and girls’ unpaid care work, enhancing climate resilience, and promoting gender equality.

Care-climate-gender Rubric – This tool is being designed to support investors, fund managers, and businesses in applying an integrated care, climate, and gender lens to their investments and activities. It will offer a conceptual framework and data collection strategy to assess how well businesses are achieving the interconnected goals of reducing unpaid care work, enhancing climate resilience, and advancing gender equality. Additionally, it will serve as a valuable resource for identifying areas where investors can support investee businesses to deepen their impact across these three dimensions.

Pathways to Impact: Transforming Women’s Lives – This report draws on 20 in-depth case studies to explore the varying impacts that care economy enterprises are having on women workers and consumers. Through secondary analysis of the quantitative and qualitative outcome data presented in each case study, this report illustrates how these businesses are contributing to women’s enhanced social and economic empowerment and how the four pathways are being implemented in practice. Additionally, the report offers valuable insights into “what works” to achieve positive impact for women through care economy businesses. Further, it provides an overview of how these businesses are currently capturing outcomes and impact, and identifies gaps in current impact measurement systems. The report concludes with actionable recommendations for businesses, investors, funders, and practitioners on how to enhance impact measurement, support normative change, and guide program design and advocacy efforts to maximise the potential gender impact of these investments.

What Works: Business Models in the Care Economy – This report will conduct a meta analysis of different types of care business models, highlighting what works (or does not work) as well as challenges and specific needs (financial and non-financial), with live examples of businesses. It will explore differences in business model scale within and between businesses – including those that recognise and reward paid care work, that reduce unpaid care work time poverty, and that redistribute care work more equally within society – in terms of reach, impact, size and revenue. This report will help businesses learn about other business models and what works, help government, funds, private investors and ecosystem builders target their financial and non-financial support in a catalytic way and to the most promising models.