Are you a small or medium-sized business, social enterprise, or community-based initiative invested in addressing unpaid care and domestic work through entrepreneurship? If yes, this grant may be for you.

This small grants programme supports documenting and amplifying the journeys of small and medium-sized enterprises and care-responsive business innovations across ASEAN. Through grounded case studies, storytelling and collective learning, the initiative aims to inform national and regional policy discussions on care, women’s economic empowerment, and inclusive growth.

Four grants of up to USD 10,000 each will be awarded to initiatives in selected ASEAN countries for a five-month period. The focus is on learning, documentation, and policy-relevant insights, rather than service expansion or business scale-up. This initiative will culminate in a regional learning event during the committee for social development in Bangkok in November 2026 where multiple stakeholders will reflect on merging findings and implications for regional and national policies.

Background:

Perhaps the biggest unrecognized contribution of women to society, business and the economy is the vastly unequal share of unpaid care and domestic work that falls on women and girls. Globally, women carry out 76 per cent of unpaid care work, over three times more than men. (ILO, 2018).

On average, the ASEAN region reports 60 per cent for female labour force participation, compared with close to 80 per cent for men.  Caregiving accounts for the biggest role as a barrier to women’s employment in terms of a “motherhood wage penalty”, a “motherhood employment penalty” and a “motherhood leadership penalty” (ILO, 2019). This underscores the importance of addressing women’s unpaid care work to effect a change in their labour force participation rates, as well as the gender pay gap and the leadership gap. [1]

While women have joined the formal workforce in huge numbers over recent decades, in the last three decades, the gap between women’s and men’s contributions to unpaid care work reduced by only seven minutes per day ILO (2018). Women work longer hours per day than men when both paid work and unpaid work are taken into consideration. Even when women are employed, they still carry out the larger share of unpaid household and care work, which limits their capacity to increase their hours in paid, formal and wage and salaried work and improve their finances and family’s wellbeing. [2] A manifestation of patriarchal norms, women’s unequal share of unpaid care and domestic work is also a major barrier to education and training, decent work, and participation in political decision-making. This is particularly the case for women living in countries and contexts where governments lack resources to adequately invest in quality, universal public services.

Women living in poverty are the most affected, as they cannot afford to ‘buy’ care and are forced to remain at the bottom rung of the informal sector, balancing paid work with their care responsibilities. [3] However, unpaid care work itself isn’t the problem; it’s essential for society to function. Childcare, cooking and caring for sick or vulnerable people are all essential services for society, but this is not acknowledged at policy level or at household level. Without care, society would come to a halt. But when unpaid care work is invisible, unvalued, and left disproportionately to women. The work of cleaning, caring, social reproduction and domestic labour which nurtures both the humanity and the planet is relegated largely to feminized workers, either as unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW) or as underpaid informal work performed by the most marginalised women.

Reframing the narrative on unpaid care and domestic work towards being a collective responsibility, and a social and economic policy issue, is critical to increase government and private sector investment in care and supporting infrastructure and services, and the development of transformative care policies. Ultimately, valuing care as a social good and an essential part of the economy is key to achieving an economy that values wellbeing and equality over growth and extraction.

Over the past years, ESCAP and Oxfam have worked in close partnership to advance the care agenda in ASEAN, combining regional policy engagement with grounded national action. Joint efforts have supported positioning care as a cross-sectoral policy issue linked to gender equality, social protection, and economic resilience, including through regional dialogues such as the Jakarta Roundtable on Building a Caring Economy in January 2023 and the Regional Forum on Care Work hosted by the ASEAN Committee on Women in July 2023. These processes contributed to the development and adoption of ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy and Fostering Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community in 2024, marking a regional commitment to address care through policies and programmes. In parallel, ESCAP and Oxfam have collaborated at the country level in Cambodia, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Lao PDR through national consultations, policy dialogues, capacity-building, and advocacy linking care with family policies, social protection, and women’s entrepreneurship. Together, this partnership reflects a deliberate effort to connect regional policy commitments with local experiences and evidence, creating a foundation for learning, innovation, and policy influence on care in ASEAN.

The idea

Care-related enterprises and care-responsive business models offer a critical entry point for translating policy commitments into practice. Small and medium care enterprises, cooperatives, and community-based initiatives are already experimenting with diverse approaches to providing paid care, reducing unpaid care burdens, and supporting workers and entrepreneurs to balance paid work and care responsibilities.

At the same time, many of these initiatives face structural constraints, including limited access to finance, weak regulatory recognition, informality, and insufficient policy support. Their experiences remain under-documented and under-represented in policy debates.

The learning generated through this grant programme is intended to inform ongoing national and regional policy discussions in ASEAN, including on care systems, women’s economic empowerment, and social protection. Applicants are encouraged to frame their experiences and insights in ways that can speak to policymakers and stakeholders beyond their immediate context.

This initiative will culminate in a regional learning event during the committee for social development in Bangkok in November 2026 where multiple stakeholders will reflect on merging findings and implications for regional and national policies.

Who can apply

The grant will be open to small businesses and local partners supporting communities directly in running their small businesses. Please note that this grant cannot cover any subcontracting activities.

The grant will be open to initiatives in  ASEAN countries.

The grant would give a particular preference to

1. Care enterprises and paid care models: Small and medium care enterprises or community-based initiatives that involve paid care work, across a variety of models and services, such as care for children, older persons or persons with disabilities, and including digital-enabled care enterprises, on-demand, in-person or centre-based services for families or corporations.
2. Care-responsive business practices: Initiatives where small and/or medium enterprises test approaches to address the care responsibilities of workers and entrepreneurs, such as workplace care solutions, flexible arrangements, or partnerships with care providers

Applicants must be legally registered entities in their country of operation and able to comply with basic due diligence requirements if selected. Women‑led, women‑owned, and community‑based enterprises are strongly encouraged to apply.

What this grant will support:

This grant will support  capturing the journey of these types of efforts

1. Development of innovative delivery mechanisms or cluster-based models, which bring together multiple small and medium care providers in a specific locality or sector (e.g., garment workers, rural communities, low-income urban neighbourhoods) which promotes shared services, resource pooling and joint advocacy.

2. Support for small care businesses to document and communicate their experiences to influence policy in ASEAN. This could include investments in storytelling initiatives such as documentaries, learning papers, or advocacy campaigns that highlight their journeys, challenges, and the types of state support needed for small care enterprises or businesses integrating care solutions.

3. Joint-efforts with the private sector stakeholders to capture voices of women workers and entrepreneurs and amplifying these voices with regional and national decision makers. This could include efforts like the Application of the Private Sector Rapid Care Analysis Toolkit

What this grant will not support:

This is a learning and documentation grant. As such, it does not support:

• Large-scale service expansion or infrastructure investments
• Purchase of major equipment or construction of facilities
• Core business financing, loans, or revolving funds
• Long-term staff salaries unrelated to documentation and learning
• Standalone research projects not grounded in lived enterprise or worker experience
• Activities primarily focused on profit generation without a clear care and learning dimension

Looking ahead:

The learnings from this regional granting exercise would help us unpack:

1. Effective models in Asia to address unpaid care and domestic work of female workers
2. How and where should government and private sector invest to contextually address the care responsibilities of working and self-employed women
3. How can governments foster a robust ecosystem for female entrepreneurship and care

How to apply

1. Send us a basic narrative proposal as per the format in Annex II below
2. Share with us an indicative budget of how you plan to utilise the amount up to 10,000 USD

Send the filled-out document in Annex II with the subject line, “Application: Caring Entrepreneurs” by 10 May 2026 to info@oxfam.org.ph.

Download the Annex II document.

Eligibility and Due Diligence Requirements

To ensure responsible and transparent grant management, shortlisted or selected applicants will be required to submit basic due diligence documentation as a condition before contracting.

These requirements will be requested only after selection and will include:

• Proof of legal registration in the country of operation (e.g., SEC Registration in the Philippines or equivalent)
• Audited Financial Statement for one (1) year (latest available)
• Bank Certification issued by the applicant’s bank indicating:
  • Name of the organization
  • Bank name and branch
  • Account name and account number

Applicants who are unable to provide audited financial statements may be requested to submit alternative financial documentation, subject to review.

Selection and Evaluation

The review process may prioritize projects that are inclusive, intersectional and center the voices of care workers themselves.

All eligible grant applications will be reviewed by a steering committee consisting of representatives from Oxfam, UNESCAP, as well as independent organisations/experts in the care sector. The steering committee will be responsible for assessing the applications and making funding recommendations. The final decision on grant awards will be made by the grant program administrator in consultation with the steering committee.

Evaluation Criteria

1. Relevance: The project should be relevant to the goals of the grant, which  include promoting the nexus between care and entrepreneurship and showcasing to ASEAN governments that this is a viable avenue to invest in
2. Impact: The project should have the potential to achieve measurable, meaningful, and sustainable impact on the lives of care providers, and/or the wider communities in which they live and work.
3. Inclusivity: The project should center the voices and experiences of care workers themselves, and/or be designed in consultation with the communities and groups it seeks to benefit. It should prioritize intersectional and gender-responsive approaches.

Final grant approval will be subject to successful completion of due diligence and verification of required organizational documents.

Reporting Requirements

A narrative and financial report will be required at the end as part of the grant.

The team will also conduct one check-in meeting.

Contact

For questions or concerns related to the grant, please contact Myrah Nerine Butt, myrah.nerine@oxfam.org

If you have questions about the application process or eligibility requirements, please refer to the application guidelines, which can be found on our website, oxfam.org.ph/grant-caring-entrepreneurs-asean.

We encourage applicants to review the application guidelines carefully before submitting an application. If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us using the information provided above.

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Annex I: Private sector rapid care analysis toolkit

Oxfam developed a private sector rapid care analysis (PS RCA) toolkit, which aims to help management and workers to understand the heavy responsibility and long hours of unpaid care and domestic work done by workers, particularly women workers, and together to come up with a set of recommendations and actions to address these. The process enables deeper analysis of how workplace policies and practices interact with workers’ unpaid care and domestic work, given that gender audits alone seldom focus on this work. A PS RCA is not a replacement for an audit but fills a gap, as employers take action to support workers’ unpaid care and domestic work, which can have long-term impacts on the social norms around such work in the household and in communities.

Annex II: Narrative proposal format

Note to applicants:  Please ensure your application does not exceed 4 pages.  Keep it short, simple and focused.  Thank you

Sr. No	Title of the initiative	[Insert title]
1	Date of application	[Insert date]
2	Nature of applicant (Business/ social enterprise/cooperative/community/based initiative/civil society org/ Other)	[Insert nature of applicant]
3	Name of the organisation and country of registration And registration status	[Insert full name and acronym (if applicable) and country or region]
4	Legal Status registration (e.g. SEC-registered corporation, cooperative, social enterprise, association)	[Insert what the organization is registered as]
5	Short description of your business and how it links to the nexus of care and entrepreneurship	[Insert main purpose and scale of work (local, national, across Asia) and how it connects to the theme in 5-6 lines max]
6	Purpose	[Describe the proposed intervention in 300 words maximum] What experience, model, or practice related to care and entrepreneurship you propose to document or reflect onWhy this experience is important or distinctive in your contextWhat you hope to learn or make visible through this grant
7	Key Actors/Stakeholders working with others	[Describe how you are planning on working with women’s groups, care workers and care workers’ associations to undertake this intervention in 150 words]
8	Benefit to caregivers	How would this grant benefit caregivers. What impact do you foresee from your intervention (150 words)
9	Main activities	Few bullets points (approx. 100 words) listing key activities related to: – Documentation or storytelling – Reflection or learning processes – Engagement with policymakers, private sector actors, or networks
10	How would you measure success of this initiative	What specific indicators will you use to measure the success of the initiative? (approx. 200 words) Briefly outline: – How you will track progress (for example, interviews, reflection sessions, short surveys) – What indicators or signals you will use to assess success – How learning will be documented and shared
11	Key approaches	(Approx. 200 words) – What are the main approaches that you will use to implement the initiative? – Why have you chosen these particular approaches? How do they align with the goals and objectives of the initiative?
12	Total Budget in USD $	[Insert total amount in United States dollars only (Please indicate broadly what the funds will be used for (for example: documentation costs, facilitation, travel for interviews, communications, coordination).
13	Timeline	Please indicate expected start and end date and total duration (up to 5 months, must complete by November 2026)
14	Who could learn what from this initiative?	What are you expecting to learn from this initiative? (few bullet points max 200 words) Please also describe how your experience and learning could be relevant for: – National policymakers – ASEAN-level discussions on care, labour, women’s economic empowerment, or social protection – Other care enterprises or businesses in the region

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[1] https://www.unescap.org/kp/2021/addressing-unpaid-care-work-asean

[2] https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_457317.pdf

[3] https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621265/gd-care-principles-institutional-strategies-130921-en.pdf;jsessionid=505F1D86B5AB850CD3E7173EE50024C4?sequence=1