October 29, which marks the International Day of Care and Support, urges us to take action to forge a society that would prioritize the care of people and the planet for a better future.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has documented a care crisis characterized by growing demand for care – fueled by population ageing and exacerbated by the effects of climate change – that far exceeds the services, infrastructure and people needed to provide it.

This crisis exposes the fact that care, which is indispensable for the sustainability of life, continues to be carried out mainly by women, who take on this work without pay or in precarious conditions and do so throughout their entire life cycle. This inequitable burden limits the full exercise of their rights, restricts their participation in employment and public life, and deepens gender inequalities.

According to ECLAC’s data, the proportion of people aged 60 and older in the region will nearly double by 2050, rising to 183 million from the current 98 million, representing 25% of the total population. Even more critical is the growth in the group of people aged 80 and older, which will reach 37 million in 2050, or 5% of the total population – tripling its current proportion. This process of “the ageing of ageing” entails increased demand for support and care for basic, everyday activities – and most especially for long-term care – as well as for specialized healthcare services. At the same time, there is an ongoing shortage of child care and early childhood development services.

ECLAC has clearly warned that without robust, inclusive and sustainable care policies and systems, our countries will not be prepared to address the accelerated population ageing process with justice.

In light of this scenario, we propose moving towards the “care society” – a new paradigm that prioritizes the sustainability of life and the care of people and the planet, and that recognizes care not only as a necessity throughout the life cycle but also as a human right, a public good, a job, and a driving sector for the economy as a whole.

We must necessarily have a forward-looking perspective. Economic and productive transformations, territorial and environmental sustainability challenges, growing needs for long-term care, and the challenges posed by human mobility, require innovative responses that would integrate and transform politics and our societies from a gender and care perspective.  

To this end, Latin America and the Caribbean has a rich repository of regional agreements and national experiences with care-related matters.

The Regional Gender Agenda – adopted at the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is a collective construction with nearly 50 years of history – guides care policies and systems with a gender, life cycle and territorial perspective. Of particular note is the recent Tlatelolco Commitment, which establishes a decade of action from 2025 to 2035 to hasten the achievement of substantive gender equality and the care society. This vision is reinforced by other regional agreements within ECLAC’s sphere, and by Advisory Opinion 31/25 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which recognizes an autonomous right to care. Care is also a central topic in the political declaration of the Second World Summit for Social Development, which will be held in Doha, Qatar on November 4-6.

We are facing an unprecedented political opportunity. The centrality given to care now in international debates and the growing legal recognition of the right to care create possibilities for fostering this essential transformation, which has already begun but needs to be accelerated. The current global scenario of uncertainty and fragmentation demands stronger collective action than ever. The care society is a goal within our reach if we mobilize the right resources. It is time to prioritize this agenda as a pillar of well-being for current and future generations, for creating quality employment and reducing inequality and poverty, and thereby move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development. 

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs

Executive Secretary of ECLAC