ECLAC Calls for Transforming Development Models in Latin America and the Caribbean and Building a Society that Prioritizes People and the Planet on the Occasion of the[...]

28 October 2024|News

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On October 29, 2024, the International Day of Care and Support will be commemorated, as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2023. This day aims to highlight the centrality of care in our societies as a public good, recognizing its essential role in ensuring the sustainability of life and the planet, and its key contribution to the well-being and prosperity of individuals, societies, sustainable development, and equality. As global, regional, and national demands for care increase, ECLAC reaffirms its commitment to the countries of the region to design and implement comprehensive care policies and systems capable of guaranteeing rights for those who receive care, those who provide it, and for individuals to practice self-care based on principles of equality, universality, and social and gender co-responsibility. This responsibility must be shared among individuals from all sectors of society, families, communities, businesses, and the State.

Latin America and the Caribbean faces three development traps: one of low capacity of growth; another of high inequality, low social mobility, and weak social cohesion; and a third trap of weak institutional capacities and governance, including a persistent care crisis. This crisis is characterized by an increasing demand for care, exacerbated by population aging and the effects of climate change, which far exceed the available workforce, services, and infrastructure. This context makes the social reorganization of care urgent to prevent the deepening of inequalities stemming from the gendered division of labour, where women continue to shoulder most care work-often unpaid or in precarious conditions-and there is a significant deficit in public policies to ensure access to care for those who need it.

ECLAC has called for a paradigm shift: advancing the construction of a care society that centers on the sustainability of life and the planet. This implies a profound transformation in the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of development, recognizing the role of care in sustaining life and the planet, and acknowledging eco-dependence (human dependence on nature), interdependence among people, and care as a necessity, an essential job, and a right. It also envisions care as a sector with the potential to boost economies. The proposal draws on contributions from feminist economics and movements, the Buen Vivir (good living) approach advocated by the region's Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, public health perspectives, and multilateral dialogue and engagement with governments, civil society organizations, and international bodies.

In recent years, the debate around care has gained increasing relevance at the global, regional, national, and local levels. The proclamation of the International Day of Care and Support through the General Assembly resolution (A/RES/77/317) and the approval of the Human Rights Council resolution on the "Importance of Care and Support from a Human Rights Perspective" in October 2023 marked significant milestones. Both resolutions emphasize the need to redistribute care work, recognizing its importance in promoting gender equality and human rights.

The year 2024 has been particularly significant in this global effort within the United Nations. Under Chile's presidency in ECOSOC, the resolution "Promoting Care and Support Systems for Social Development" (E/CN.5/2024/L.5) was approved, the first of its kind in this intergovernmental forum. This resolution highlights the fundamental role of care systems in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring the social, economic, and environmental well-being of our societies. Various actors have agreed that reorganizing care work is essential for achieving the SDGs. The United Nations document "Transforming Care Systems in the Context of the SDGs and Our Common Agenda" offers policy options and strategies adaptable to different contexts and territories.

The International Labour Conference, in its 112th session in 2024, addressed the issue, resulting in a resolution on decent work and the care economy. The 5R Framework (Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, Represent) for care work guides the development of integrated and coherent strategies that allow for the formulation and implementation of care policies and systems that promote decent work and gender equality.

In September 2024, the Pact for the Future, approved at the Summit of the Future, reinforced this commitment, underscoring the importance of "significantly increasing investments to eliminate the gender gap, including in the care and support economy." This pact recognizes that gender gaps and poverty are closely linked and that investing in care systems is a way to reduce inequality and promote women's empowerment. On this occasion, the regional commissions launched their joint policy report on "Intergenerational Relations: Creating a World for All Ages So No One Is Left Behind," which provides recommendations on the social and economic challenges and opportunities that demographic changes present to advance multigenerational societies in different regions.

In this context, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have contributed to driving these advances, leading an approach that recognizes care as a right, a public good, an essential job, and an economic sector, both within the inter-American human rights system and through agreements adopted in ECLAC's intergovernmental bodies. The Regional Gender Agenda, adopted at the sessions of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1977, is highlighted. The Brasilia Consensus (2010) marked a milestone by recognizing the right to care for the first time in an intergovernmental agreement as a universal right throughout the life cycle, promoting gender and social co-responsibility, and articulating social and economic policies. The Montevideo Strategy (2016) advanced commitments to overcome the gender-based division of labour, in synergy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Santiago Commitment (2020) identified the need for countercyclical policies to mitigate the effects of crises on women and the care economy as a key sector for sustainable recovery. The most recent Buenos Aires Commitment (2022) recognizes care as a right of individuals to provide care, be cared for, and practice self-care, and calls for overcoming the gender-based division of labour, promoting a fair social organization of care within a development framework that drives gender equality across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. It sets a path towards a care society, proposing agreements for transformative recovery with gender equality and sustainability. The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is organized by ECLAC, as the Conference Secretariat, and since 2020, in coordination with UN Women.

Additionally, the issue of care has gained relevance in the policy orientations of other ECLAC subsidiary bodies, such as the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which approved the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, agreeing to develop universal care policies and services based on the highest human rights standards, with a gender and generational equality perspective, promoting co-responsibility among the State, the private sector, civil society, families, and households. It also includes care in social protection systems and emphasizes the importance of maximizing the autonomy and dignity of older persons. Likewise, the Asunción Declaration, approved at the Fourth Regional Intergovernmental Conference on Aging and the Rights of Older Persons (2017), urges governments to combat age discrimination and provide comprehensive health services and care, promoting healthy aging. The Santiago Declaration, adopted at the Fifth Regional Intergovernmental Conference on Aging and the Rights of Older Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean (December 2022), aims to guarantee human rights and the participation of older persons as a way to advance towards an inclusive and resilient care society. Furthermore, the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development, adopted at the Third Meeting of the Regional Conference on Inclusive Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (2019), included care in social protection systems as part of its action lines, ensuring policy accessibility for individuals requiring and providing care, with a special focus on the situation of young people who are out of school and the labour market due to care responsibilities. In Resolution 5 (V), approved at the Fifth Meeting of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (2023), the importance of social protection systems ensuring co-responsibility between the State and society, and between women and men, is reaffirmed as essential for transformative recovery. The Conclusions and Recommendations agreed upon by the governments at the Sixth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development (April 2023) recognize the importance of promoting plans for a care society with gender equality. The Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA) has adopted a Guide for mainstreaming the gender perspective in statistical production. The articulation between the Regional Conference on Women and the SCA is highlighted, with instruments such as the Classification of Time Use Activities for Latin America and the Caribbean (CAUTAL) and the Methodological Guide on Time Use Measurements. These products underline that the gender perspective must be central in statistical production and reflect the region's leadership in creating conceptual frameworks adopted by Member States.

More recently, in paragraph 11 of Resolution 771(XL) of the fortieth session of ECLAC held in Lima in October 2024, the formulation and implementation of public policies based on data collection and broad programs integrating sustainable development were encouraged, particularly the mainstreaming of a transformative gender perspective to address multiple crises. The resolution reiterates the call to include actions that promote comprehensive care systems, decent work, and the full, meaningful, and equal participation of women in leadership positions in strategic sectors of the economy to achieve sustainable, inclusive, and resilient recovery and development. Moreover, chapter V of the document titled Latin America and the Caribbean in the Development Traps: Indispensable Transformations and How to Manage Them, presented at this session of the Commission, highlights the need to strengthen the care sector by recognizing, redistributing, and reducing unpaid work, and generating quality employment that adequately represents and remunerates those working in this field to achieve gender equality, improve social welfare, and foster economic growth with decent jobs.

In addition to directly contributing to sustainable development and well-being, care policies have an impact in terms of direct and indirect quality job creation, returns to the State in the form of taxes and social security contributions, and productive and social improvements for society as a whole. The International Labour Organization (ILO) developed a Care Policy Investment Simulator, an online tool that models investment opportunities and potential benefits of parental leave, as well as childcare and long-term care services for individuals who need support or daily care to maintain their autonomy and well-being. The collaboration between ECLAC and the ILO allowed for updating the simulator's coverage to include 23 countries in the region. According to this tool, investing in care in the region could generate approximately 32 million jobs by 2035 in childcare and long-term care services, and these numbers could be even higher when considering the indirect effects of investment.

The XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be held in Mexico in 2025 under the theme Transformations in Political, Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Fields to Foster the Care Society and Gender Equality, will provide a key space to deepen the necessary strategies and consolidate this approach across the region.

Thus, on this second commemoration of the International Day of Care and Support, ECLAC underscores the importance of mobilizing efforts and resources to advance the care society. This day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of ensuring the sustainability of life and the planet, and building a more