LEAP IN PRACTICE Series No. 2026-03

Care is a social good which is critical to the functioning of societies and economies. In the Philippines, a 2019 study valued care work at approximately Php 2.5 trillion in 2015 — equivalent to 18.6% of the country’s gross domestic product for that year. The study also estimated that women and girls contributed roughly three-quarters of this total. This disproportionate burden of unpaid, underpaid and paid care work remains central to Oxfam Pilipinas’ and its partners’ critiques of gender inequality.

Conducted at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2021, a national household care survey of 1,119 adults and 58 children across eight of the country’s 13 regions showed that women spent an average of 6.5 hours on care-related work — three times longer than men. This deep gender disparity in taking on care-related tasks directly restricts women’s participation in the “formal economy.” According to official 2023 government data, the female labor force participation rate stood at just 52.3%, lagging 20 percentage points behind men, whose participation has consistently remained above 70% since 2013.

This learning brief examines how Oxfam Pilipinas and its partners address these policy gaps by transforming the care policy scorecard (CPSC). Originally a comprehensive policy assessment tool, it has been repurposed into a participatory social accountability process. This shift enables civil society groups and local governments to jointly diagnose legislative shortfalls, identify key intervention priorities and strengthen long-term accountability for care work.

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