Care economy
The care society prioritizes the sustainability of life, linking care for people and for the planet. It can help to reverse social and gender inequalities in synergy with the environmental dimension and economic development. It helps to reduce the precariousness of care work and highlights the multiplier effects of the care economy.
Activities
Festival de Datos 2023
The Festival de Datos takes place in Punta del Este, from November 7-9, 2023, bringing together more than 400 delegates from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society of various nationalities.
XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
The fifteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean was held in Buenos Aires from 7 to 11 November 2022.
The burden of unpaid care work on Caribbean women in the time of COVID-19
Side event as part of the Sixty-first meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
Panel: Women's autonomy and the care economy in the framework of a transformative and sustainable recovery with equality
The crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus has accentuated the structural challenges of gender inequality and has generated a setback of more than a decade in terms of women's participation in the labor market, a deepening of the feminization of poverty and an increase in the burden of care work, even in higher-income countries such as Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay. Furthermore, as one of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalization of economies that still face a significant gender gap in terms of access to and use of technologies, accentuated even more by income levels, has accelerated.
News
ECLAC Calls for Accelerating the Achievement of Substantive Gender Equality and the Care Society on the Occasion of the International Day of Care and Support
On 29 October 2025, the International Day of Care and Support, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2023, will be commemorated. This date seeks to raise awareness of the centrality of care in our societies and its contribution to people’s well-being and prosperity and to the achievement of gender equality and sustainable development.
Care Is the Future: Latin America and the Caribbean Launch the Decade of the Care Society
By Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women; José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; and Citlalli Hernández Mora, Secretary for Women of Mexico. Published in El País (Spain), on 30/09/2025.
Latin American and Caribbean Countries Approved the Tlatelolco Commitment, which Establishes a Decade of Action to Achieve Substantive Gender Equality and the Care Society
Today the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean ended in Mexico City, having been organized by ECLAC in coordination with UN Women, under the leadership of the Government of Mexico as Chair.