Fiscal, social, cultural and environmental pacts are needed to face the growing demand for care and reverse gender inequalities, recommends ECLAC

To address the growing demand for care, reverse gender inequalities, and move towards a transformative recovery that overcomes gender inequality, fiscal, social, cultural, and environmental pacts are needed. It is also necessary to design comprehensive care policies and systems that integrate the world views and care needs of the various communities, of women and families in large cities, but also those in rural territories, of indigenous peoples or with diverse migratory conditions.

This was stated by the Director of the Division for Gender Affairs of ECLAC, Ana Güezmes, during the parallel event “The adoption of the principle of co-responsibility in care and domestic work”, held within the framework of the 77th period of sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting, which included the participation of specialists and decision makers from various backgrounds, was co-organized by the Global Alliance for Care, the Institute of Women of Mexico (INMUJERES) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

Ana Güezmes’ participation was focused on proposals to move towards a scheme of political governance and intersectoral management that ensures local-national articulation with the global and regional interventions that a comprehensive care system requires. In that sense, she emphasized the need to generate transformative responses that address the multiple crises facing humanity globally, including the care crisis. She also called to move towards the care society as a new societal organization that prioritizes the sustainability of life, of the planet and guarantees the rights of people who require care, as well as the rights of those who care and also considers self-care.

To move towards a society of care, he added, it is necessary to consider care not only as a subject for reflection but also for public policy action in the face of a civilizational change. “It is urgent to adopt comprehensive care policies and systems from the perspectives of gender, intersectionality, interculturality and human rights. This implies designing policies that integrate the worldviews and the care needs of the various communities, of women and families in large cities, but also those in rural territories, of indigenous peoples or with diverse migratory conditions.” And he added that it is also necessary to think globally and act locally, “attending to the local needs of the populations but also making agreements at a global level.”

Ana Güezmes reiterated that ECLAC maintains that it is necessary to strengthen multilateralism, for which an exchange between governments, the private sector, academia, various communities and voices through civil society organizations, mainly feminists and women’s organizations, is required. present the inescapable role of the State as guarantor of quality and progressiveness in the design of care systems. She also suggested initiatives such as multi-stakeholder intersectoral roundtables to think about and implement public policies with gender and social co-responsibility in care.

The care society requires co-responsibility, but it also generates it, said the Director of the Division of Gender Affairs. It is about designing labor, productive, social security policies that free up time, and reduce the unpaid work of women and improve the quality of employment in the care sector, where women mostly participate, in order to start the path to reversing the debt. that today societies as a whole have with women, he added. In this sense, the care society is the way for an equitable distribution of power, resources, time and work between women and men and also between the State, communities, the market and families. “Interdependence and vulnerability are part of the human condition, which is why the social organization must consider these characteristics to move towards the collective construction of a society without exclusions with care relationships. We are talking about gender and social co-responsibility, ”she indicated.

Ana Güezmes also referred to the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will take place in Argentina between November 7 and 11, and whose central theme will be “The Care Society: Horizon for a recovery sustainable with gender equality. There, she said, “we will surely advance in how to multilaterally outline fiscal, social, cultural and environmental pacts to face the growing demand for care and reverse gender inequalities. This is a path with certain possibilities to move towards a transformative recovery that allows us to overcome the structural knots of gender inequality with co-responsibility and move towards a society of care”.

The event was opened by Nadine Gasman (President of INMUJERES), and by Sima Sami Bahous (Executive Director of UN Women), and included the participation of Belén Sanz (UN Women Representative in Mexico) and Laura Pautassi (CONICET researcher and of the Institute of Legal and Social Research “Ambrosio L. Gioja” of the University of Buenos Aires). Violet Shivutse (President of the Huairou Commission), Sharan Burrow (General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation) and Ghada Abdel Tawab (Global Senior Program Officer of the Ford Foundation) then spoke. Together with Ana Güezmes, Akshat Singhal (co-founder of The Gender Lab), Peggy Hiks (Director of the Division of thematic management, special procedures and right to development of the OHCHR) and Marita Perceval (Secretary of Equality and Diversity Policies of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of Argentina).

Nadine Gasman referred to the importance that comprehensive care systems have in economies, in the autonomy of women and in the construction of more egalitarian societies. “We need tools for sustainability and financing for the care of all people and the co-responsibility of all sectors.” He mentioned that Mexico is working to implement timely and quality care services, and is “laying the foundations for a comprehensive care system that provides services and builds a care industry that triggers competitiveness” that allows well-being for the entire population and give way to the democratization of relations between women and men.

For her part, Sima Sami Bahous mentioned that the care economy is at the center of the world scene, “at a time when gender equality is under attack and at risk of regression.” She referred to how the pandemic showed the relationship between care work and gender inequality and outlined how it has affected the lives of women: “the pandemic has meant 512 billion additional hours of unpaid care for girls and boys around the world. the world”. In that sense, called for urgent decisions “to accelerate the economy and invest in quality and affordable care infrastructure and services. All sectors have a role to play, and we can do it with public policy tools for investment in care infrastructure”.

Finally, Marita Perceval, Secretary of Equality and Diversity Policies of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity of Argentina, recalled that Argentina will be the host country of the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose central theme will be “The care society as a horizon for a sustainable recovery with gender equality” and referred to the need for comprehensive care systems to take into account the territorial dimension.

Call to Action of the Global Alliance for Care.