Financing care systems and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: Contributions for a sustainable recovery with gender equality

Abstract

In Latin America and the Caribbean, care has gradually been placed at the centre of public agendas, albeit unevenly, as a result of growing political commitments, as well as the work of women’s movements and feminist economic studies. These contributions have focused on the need to reorganize and redistribute care work as a key factor in more egalitarian and inclusive societies.

Over the course of more than four decades, the member States of ECLAC, meeting at sessions of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, have adopted the Regional Gender Agenda, which aims to guarantee women’s rights and drive progress towards their autonomy, laying the foundations for societies with equality. In that framework, governments of the region have adopted a number of agreements that are essential for designing and implementing care policies. The agreements reaffirm the principles of universality and progressivity in access to quality care services, the importance of co-responsibility between men and women, and among the State, the market, communities, and families, as well as the importance of promoting the financial sustainability of public care policies aimed at achieving gender equality.