📖Introduction

About the project

The Open Up Guide for the Care Sector is a project led by the Open Data Charter (ODC) in conjunction with local governments and in collaboration with civil society organisations specialising in data.

We hope this Guide will become a tool for governments to use to make care work more visible and measurable as part of economic development. We also hope that as a result, all aspects of care work anywhere, whether carried out formally or informally, will be recognised and acknowledged, as well as the number of people that requires care, what type of care they require, the available supply of care through facilities, programs and infrastructure, and the working conditions and professionalisation of the people who perform care tasks.

The Guide is based on the implementation of the Care Economy Indicators System of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) carried out in 2021, and the implementation of the Care Economy Indicators System of Mexico City carried out by the city government of Mexico (GCDMX). Both projects were carried out by the Open Data Charter and local grassroots organisations, as well as specialists in the care economy.

Target audiences

This guide is for individuals, teams or institutions that wish to implement a Care Indicators System (CIS), wherever they are located. Governments carry out public education, health and social programs and although some of them incidentally cover tasks associated with care, generally these programs are not directly designed for this. Although the main objective of educational institutions is to guarantee the teaching-learning processes for those who access them, these institutions indirectly play a crucial role in care and upbringing tasks, such as feeding, sleeping and hygiene, which are currently not recognised. The same is true in other areas. Health programmes focus on ensuring people's access to health, but they also indirectly contribute to ensuring care for people who need permanent or temporary support to carry out daily activities.

The innovation proposed by this System of Indicators is to measure how many people are in a situation in which they require care, and from a more holistic view, make accessible the supply and demand for care existing within a place, so that those who make decisions, can propose a transformation of the public services and programmes that considers care as an intersectional dimension of the health services, education, social programs and infrastructure of a locality.