Care work entails activities undertaken to ensure the day-to-day well-being of persons from various perspectives: physical, economic, moral and emotional. As such, it ranges from the provision of elements essential to human life, such as food, shelter, cleanliness, health and company, to support and the transmission of knowledge, social values and practices via processes related to nurturing.
The term encompasses relationships between caregivers and persons receiving care in situations of dependency: children, persons with disabilities or chronic diseases, and older persons. However, all human beings could potentially receive care at some point in their lives. People who are not dependants but are wholly or partially unable to cover their own care needs may also receive care. Alternatively, in the context of the prevailing unequal division of labour based on the sex-gender system, active people with resources may assume that their care needs should be met by others.
The dynamics of care provision cover a range of relationships between the provider and recipient of care, including ties of kinship, friendship or community or links between work colleagues. Many models of care therefore coexist, with diverse participants, such as family members, the community and public and private bodies.
As a result of sex-gender inequalities in the social division of labour and the compartmentalization of the labour market, care is provided chiefly by women, either on an unpaid basis within the home or as paid members of the labour force. The “cultural mandate” obliging women to carry out these tasks, generally on an unpaid basis, and the short-sightedness regarding the responsibility of society in this regard has led to an adverse constellation of factors, creating barriers for women's participation in the labour market on equal terms, reinforcing sex-gender-system inequalities and segmentations across society, and giving rise to disparities in care services as a result of contrasting socioeconomic conditions.
Against this backdrop, the provision of care in Latin America is highly unequal, and reproduces and amplifies socioeconomic and gender inequality. This is expressed in the conditions under which care is provided, which include access to social protection, recognition and adequate pay for care workers and access to sufficient high-quality care mechanisms and services.
In a context of profound cultural and demographic shifts, including the incorporation of women into the paid workforce and changing family structures, traditional care arrangements are being undermined and depleted. This is happening at the same time as progressive population ageing is giving rise to greater and more complex care needs, and the notion of care is broadening into a right that must be met. Hence the emergence of the “care crisis”, the tipping point at which the need for policy responses becomes imperative.
Despite the importance of care, the necessary policy formulation and implementation has, in general, been slow and inadequate in the region. Care-related risks remain anchored in the family, and the importance of care as an integral part of social protection systems is often overlooked.
The Social Development Division aims to position care as a pillar of social protection and public policy, through its research efforts and its technical consultancy services. It maintains that the rights-based perspective should apply to both providers and recipients of care, and that the right to give care, to receive care and to self-care is essential for the exercise of other human rights. For early childhood, efforts must be geared towards giving young children a head start in the development of skills and capabilities that are critical for cognitive development and have the potential to reduce social inequalities. Care for older, vulnerable and dependent persons and those with disabilities should support activity and autonomy and combat social isolation. In the case of caregivers, the social organization of care should help broaden their range of options and life choices.
Care policies must be formulated in strict accordance with a rights-based approach and the principles of equality, universality and solidarity, and must address regulatory, economic and social issues related to the social organization of care work. They must consider issues concerning the services, time and resources necessary to provide care, under conditions of equality and solidarity between generations and the genders. Care policies therefore require standards to ensure their quality and relevance, as well as adequate funding.