The international solidarity association CARE France is a member of the CARE International network. CARE was founded in 1945 to help the populations of Europe and Asia who were victims of the Second World War. Today, CARE works to help the poorest people in 65 countries (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe) through development programmes in the following fields: education, food security, water and hygiene, the environment, micro-businesses, healthcare and human rights. CARE also comes to the aid of populations who are victim to conflicts or natural disasters. The projects undertaken by CARE aim to contribute to the independence of populations by giving them the means to build towards their futures and eventually to become autonomous.
CARE follows a set of Programming Principles in their emergency, rehabilitation and long-term development work. CARE's principles are aligned with those of many other humanitarian agencies, and include:
CARE defines women’s economic empowerment as the process by which women increase their right to economic resources and power to make decisions to benefit themselves, their families and their communities. This requires equal access to and control over economic resources, assets and opportunities as well as long term changes in social norms and economic structures that benefit women and men equally. All of CARE’s work seeking to economically empower women must simultaneously consider how to support a shift in unpaid domestic and care work. This involves working at household levels to shift expectations between couples, at community level to reset the perception that women must do the work at home, and at institutional levels to advocate for greater recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid work through investment in social protection (e.g. affordable childcare).