To support national efforts toward developing and implementing care-responsive and gender-transformative response and recovery policies, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) has engaged in a global project with UN regional commissions and cooperating partners. The toolkit “Placing Gender Equality and Care in the Center of National Economic Policies in Response to COVID-19” has been produced as part of this global project.
The Toolkit responds to member States´ demand for support of national policy efforts through practical and adaptable instruments. The purpose of the toolkit, thus, is to support governments and national stakeholders in incorporating a strategic focus on care and gender equality into COVID-19 response and recovery action. The Toolkit recognizes that each member State is unique. Therefore, the importance of country ownership of the process cannot be stressed enough. The Toolkit does not prescribe a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. Instead, it suggests a step-by-step approach and shares examples that can be adapted to specific country contexts, taking into account economic preconditions, institutional structures, as well as traditions and cultures that profoundly shape the provision of care.
The Toolkit is primarily intended as a tool for government institutions and their offices, task forces and focal points responsible for the development, coordination and monitoring of COVID-19 response policies.